Exploring Flight with Mr. Hoy

A major focus since the start of the school year has been flight. 

One of the intermediate students is excellent at making paper so he taught the primary students about the basics of how to create their own paper airplanes. 

Some of the primary students learned how to make specific models of paper airplanes and instructed the other students to create them. 

Mrs. Hoy's husband, Mr. Hoy, came in and taught us about flight using the forces of flight vocabulary: drag, lift, gravity, and thrust. He talked about making a larger front surface for the airplane to have more lift and we act as the thrust by throwing it.

To explore drag and gravity, we dropped different objects from high up to see how they fell. We also learned that airplanes are shaped the way they are because it helps create lift.

Mr. Hoy also brought in a radio-controlled model airplane and flew it around the multi-purpose room. The kids loved it!

He showed us a wing airplane model that he made out of the styrofoam lid of an egg carton. We used a penny to balance the weight and made aileron tabs on the wings to help with left and right control. 

He also showed us how to use what we learned about flight to tweak our paper airplanes to make them even better.

In the hallway outside of the primary classrooms, the students created an extensive timeline showing the evolution of flight throughout history.

Mr. Hoy graciously offered to be our tour guide around the Wright Patt Air Force Museum. We learned so much!

Here is what we had to say about our trip to the Air Force Museum:

Shoshana: "I learned that each President has his own plane."

Noah: "My favorite planes were the President planes. I was surprised that the President planes were so long. It took us a long time to walk through it."

Ezra: "I never knew that planes were made out of titanium metal. I saw that the P39 plane has an engine behind the pilot."

Jonah: "I learned that the Stealth Bomber had a really smooth surface. I liked seeing the Holocaust stuff that people made to remember."

PreVella: "I loved looking at the tall rockets."

Elior: "I saw that the Stealth Bomber was really big but it is as small as a bird on radar. I learned that the Black Bird could get to 700 degrees F. That's really hot."

Gabby: "I didn't know the Black Bird was so big. My favorite thing was the blimp and it even has a special hanger to go in."

Eli: "I learned that the Black Bird grows when it is hot. It gets so hot because it is going 2000 mph."

Chava: "I learned the B52 Bomber had crumples in the skin and when it was going fast it got smooth."

Jake: "I liked looking at the President's airplanes and going in them."

Yoel: "I like to see the airplanes we have on our timeline. My favorite airplane from our timeline was the Black Bird."

To finish out our unit about flight, each student attempted to fly his or her paper airplane through a hoop. First, the hoop began on the ground and these students were the only two that made it through the hoop! 

To make it more difficult, the hoop was attached to the back of the easel so students had to use thrust to create lift to push their planes against gravity. The kids had a blast so we had many rounds of competition!