Designing Paper Airplanes
In this lesson, children will plan, create and test paper airplanes using an engineering-design inquiry process.
Learning Goals:
This lesson will help children meet the following educational standards:
- Develop beginning skills in the use of science and engineering practices such as observing, asking questions, solving problems, and drawing conclusions
Learning Targets:
After this lesson, children should be more proficient at:
- Expressing wonder and curiosity about their world by asking questions and solving problems
- Developing and using models to represent their ideas, observations and explanations through activities such as drawing or building
- Carrying out simple investigations
- Using mathematical and computational thinking
- Generating explanations and communicating ideas and/or conclusions about their investigations
Step 1: Gather materials.
- Masking tape
- Paper
- Pencils
Step 2: Introduce activity.
- Assemble the children in a large group and introduce the idea of making paper airplanes.
- Ask: "What materials in the classroom might we use?"
- After this discussion, pass around a pre-folded paper airplane. Do not show the children how you made the airplane, as they will be using their own ideas to create original designs.
- Ask the children if they have any ideas about making a paper airplane or how far it might travel.
Step 3: Engage children in lesson activities.
- Separate the children into small groups, hand out paper and pencils, and ask them to draw what their paper airplanes might look like.
- After the drawings are completed, invite the children to share their designs and tell the group how they will create their airplanes.
- Next, hand out the paper that the children will use to create airplanes based on their design plans.
- After the children have made their airplanes, invite them to predict how far their own airplanes—and the planes of their classmates—will travel. Consider documenting these predictions on a chart.
- Instruct the children to test their designs. Put a piece of masking tape on the floor to mark where the children will launch their airplanes. Ask the children to "fly" their airplanes to see how far they will travel. Use another piece of masking tape to show how far each airplane travels.
- After all of the airplanes have been tested, invite the children to share their observations about the activity.
- Ask: "What airplanes flew the farthest? What design elements made the planes fly better? What would you do differently if you made another airplane?"
Step 4: Engineering vocabulary
- Design: To create a plan for something that will be built
- Predict: To guess what might happen
- Plan: To decide how to carry out an experiment or conduct an engineering project
- Test: To try out an idea to see if it works or not
Step 5: Extensions
Suggested Books
- Planes Fly! by George Ella Lyon
- Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
- The Boy and the Airplane by Mark Pett
- Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen
Music and Movement
Outdoor Connections
- Fly the paper airplanes outside on a windy day and discuss how the wind changes their flight paths.
- Go on a What Flies? neighborhood walk to look for things that fly.
Web Resources
- To enhance your own understanding of paper airplane design before introducing this activity to the children, view these videos:
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