Part 3. Redesigning, reconstructing, and testing their planes
This next part commenced with the students completing
a few simple activities that illustrated the four forces associated
with flight, namely, lift, thrust, drag, and weight.
For example, to illustrate that lift is a pushing force created
by the air, the activity, How Things Fly, from the
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (http://
www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal109) was implemented. In
their booklets, the students labeled the four forces acting
on an illustrated plane and indicated the direction of each.
Next, the students discussed in their groups how and
why they would change both their launch method and
their initial design. Their deliberations were recorded in
their individual workbooks. Applying their learning
about forces, the students subsequently redesigned a
new, group plane and recorded in their workbooks how
and why they changed their design. On building their
plane, testing it, and recording the time it stayed in the
air, the students noted in their workbooks their observations
regarding: (a) how they launched their plane, (b)
the nature of its path in flight, and (c) the way in which
the plane landed. Although the students worked as a
group in their second plane design and testing, they
were to record their own, personal responses.
In the final component of the problem, students completed
a “Fact Sheet for the QANTAS Museum for their
Education Centre”. Each student recorded their responses
to (a) the time the new plane stayed in the air,
(b) why it was their best design, and (c) a description of
the forces acting on the plane.