PLTW SERIES: BOBCATS ENGAGE IN THE SCIENCE OF FLIGHT

Third-grade Bobcats at @Bessemer Academy studied the science of flight through the school's Project Lead the Way curriculum.

Exploring forces and recognizing whether they are balanced or unbalanced helps students gain an understanding of the science of flight. In this module, the students explore how planes fly and how forces push and pull an aircraft through the sky.

Also, they are introduced to Newton’s Laws of Motion.

Students expand their understanding of aircraft to learn about gliders. Students learn about the basic parts of a glider — the fuselage, the wings, and the horizontal stabilizer. Students use this knowledge to sketch glider designs in their Launch Log.

With this information, students will then use the design process to sketch, build, test, and reflect to deliver basic supplies to an area hit by a natural disaster. Binder clips and paper clips will represent the aid materials and as a team they decide how and where to attach the aid to the gliders to solve the problem.