Title: Let’s Fly Away- A lesson about paper airplanes Teacher Candidate: Katie Theurer

Subject: Fifth Grade Science- Making Observations Time Allotted: 1 hour and 13 min

from Graphs

Materials Required: Construction Paper

Printer paper

Tissue paper

Newspaper

Scissors

Five different examples of paper planes

Tape Measures.

Graph Paper

Colored Pencils

GLCE S.IP.05.15 Construct charts and graphs from data and observations. GLCE P.MF 05.33 Describe how changes in motion is the result of non-zero net (unbalanced) force. ______Michigan Curriculum Framework: Benchmark GLCE

Objective(s): The students will analyze the different data of why certain planes traveled farther than others and they will gain knowledge about the different forces affecting the airplanes, introducing them to the concept of non-zero net force.

Purpose: A lot of information is represented in a graph. Just like you have to learn to read the words in a book to understand the information, you have to learn how to read a graph to understand what it is trying to represent. By learning to interpret these graphs you will learn how to make something fly faster and for a longer period of time.

Time Essential Elements Allotted 5 minute 1. Anticipatory Set: a. Show the website http://www.paperplane.org/about.html to show the students how far they can actually make a paper airplane go. Use the video to introduce what their assignment will be for the day and how they will use the data from their paper airplanes to make a graph. 3 minute 2. State Purpose and Objective of Lesson: a. “I want you to be able to look at a graph, interpret the data and be able to explain what the information represents.” b. “I also want you to find out different characteristics that make a plane fly a longer distance.” c. “It is really important that you can read a graph so you can understand the data it is representing and it is also important to find out what makes an object fly longer in the air.” 40 minutes 3. Instructional Input Plan: a. Modeling i. Start by reviewing how to interpret graphs from the previous lesson. Discuss the x and y-axis, the title, spacing, dependent variable, independent variable and the constant. Show them this website as a review of different graphs http://www.swiftchart.com /example.htm ii. Show the class the website with different graphs on them giving the students a refresher on what the different graphs look like. Then tell the students they will be creating a bar graph at the end of this lesson about the data they collect. iii. Explain that they are going to make five different kinds of paper airplanes in a group of two. They will make five different kinds of planes and they can use any of the materials listed above to do it. The goal of the assignment is to get the plane to go as far as possible. iv. Show the examples of different airplanes on the worksheets to help give the students an idea of what they will be building. Explain a couple of the different models and how they were made. v. Tell the students that they are supposed to be creative and to try different things while making their paper airplane. vi. Then tell the students that they will be assigned a partner and read the list of partners that has already been constructed. vii. Have each student get out a piece of paper. On this piece paper, have them create a graph that has six columns and two rows. Have them label the columns as “Design 1, Design 2 etc all the way to 5. Then they need to label the two rows with the designs in one and the “Length” to represent the length traveled of the paper plane in the other row.

b. Guided Practice i. Get out one of the examples, which is the “classic” paper airplane and have every student make that one as their Design #1. ii. Walk around to the different groups to make sure they are constructing the paper airplane correctly. iii. Then take the students to the gym along with the supplies. iv. Have them test the first airplane and record the data in their chart. On their second design, they can make a new airplane, changing whatever features would help it go farther. Have them do this for the next three airplanes. v. As the groups are throwing their airplanes, go around to check on the different groups to make sure they are on the right track and ask them about their different ideas. Use this to gauge whether they are understanding and if they are not, give them hints on things to try to make the airplane go farther. c. Independent Practice. i. When they get back to the classroom, have them stay in their groups. Give each student a piece of graph paper. ii. Tell the students they need to make a bar graph with the data they collected from the paper airplane project. Have them color each bar a different color with the colored pencils. Have them label the planes so when they present to the class they can give an example of each of their four designs. 4. Differentiation Considerations a. If there are groups of students who this is really easy for then have them create planes but only change one variable at a time. They then can do five throws of the same airplane and take the average of the times to get an accurate reading to graph. b. There are also directions to more challenging paper planes that can be used for the higher level students. c. If it is anticipated that the class may have trouble with this project then when making pairs pick pairs with one higher-level student and one lower level. d. If there is a student who may not be able to make the paper airplanes due to physical issues then make sure that they are paired up with another student who can do the physical part and the student with the disability can help with ideas of how to design it. 15 minutes 5. Assessment a. The students will turn in the bar graph that they colored and designed but each one of them will write down at least three specific observations they made from the bar graph. The observations need to cover why the plane flew either a shorter or longer distance. b. Examples of answers could be that the plane had too big of flaps on the end which created too much drag and it slowed the airplane down, causing it to go a shorter distance. c. Students will not come up with their three observations in their pairs but once they have finished their bar graphs they will go back to their seat and come up with three observations on their own. 10 minutes 6. Closure a. After everyone is finished have a class discussion about some of the observations made about the main reasons of why the planes went farther or shorter distances. Make sure force of throw, weight of paper, design of wings and back of plane are all covered. b. Pick out a couple of the students graphs in the classroom and ask them to compare the graphs and how they were similar or different. Also compare the different lengths of distances the “classic dart” airplane went on everyone’s chart. c. Once the presentations are done, collect the bar graphs so that they can be checked. 7. Extension Ideas a. Once the students have heard their classmates present their ideas, have them all write down two ways that they think they could change to make the plane fly a farther distance. b. Their homework for the night would be to go home and create the “perfect airplane” using the ideas they wrote down in class or other ideas that they thought of. They can use resources at home including parents, siblings or the internet. However, they can still only use paper and glue to make them. c. Each student needs to come back to class with their airplane built and each student will get a chance to fly the airplane in the gym. Then the class can have a competition to see whose plane went the farthest. This activity could then be the anticipatory set to set up a lesson up about net force. d. To get the students a little more involved there can be a prize for the winning student. e. After flying all of the planes, the class can have a discussion about why the winning plane went so far, leading into talking about net force. Talk about the force of throw, air resistance, gravity and upward forces. Talk about what would happen if the forces were balanced with the planes. f. Students could also make a paper airplane at home and experiment with putting a weight on it. Have students see how much weight they could put on the plane while making it still fly. This way they can use their critical thinking skills on where to place the weight because real planes have to think about this fact as well. They would have to see that if they place the weight in the front, the paper airplane will topple over. g. Students could also try to see how long they can keep the plane in the air for. They make a plane at home and then time how long they can keep their airplane in the air, and bring in their results to see who could keep it in the air the longest. They will have to look at the shape of the airplane and take into account what made the other airplanes fly really far. The students will be able to see that the very designs that worked for the previous lesson will not work for this activity. They will be able to see drag and the different forces acting on the plane. Reasoning for Strategy Use

I chose the strategy Generating and Testing Hypotheses because it can be such a great way for students to take ownership over their learning. Science is often a difficult content area for many students, so using a toy airplane to teach students about bar graphs, net force and how to generate and test hypotheses is invaluable. This strategy keeps students engaged and learning the entire lesson. When students have been an interacting with the information they are learning during the lesson, it is much more likely they will remember the information versus sitting and listening to a lecture. I am very excited to use this lesson and strategy in my own classroom.

This lesson is to be used after discussing bar graphs and going over with students all the necessary components to a well designed bar graph. It is also to be used as an introductory lesson for teaching net force. The teacher can use all of the things the students learned about the plane and what made it fly farther or shorter to help teach the idea of net force. They will be able to see how many different things affected the plane’s speed or distance.

Rubric

3 Got It! 2 Getting It! 1 Need More Help! The student wrote Each observation was Each observation was Each observation was down three specific specific and somewhat specific vague and/or not observations scientifically based scientifically based

Bar graph is labeled Clear, accurate bar Bar graph is included Bar graph is included clearly and graph is included and and is labeled neatly and is labeled. accurately, makes the makes the experiment and accurately. experiment is to easier to understand. understand Bar graph is labeled neatly and accurately.