Case 4: CMFK

Air Transportation and Technology

Name: Meredith Marsden and Gabriella Crouse

Lab Instructor: Ji Lim
Lesson Topic:
Investigating how airplanes are designed to be a quick mode of transportation
Indiana Standard:
Physical science: 4.PS.1 Investigate transportation systems and devices that
operate on or in land, water, air and space and recognize the forces (lift, drag,
friction, thrust and gravity) that affect their motion.
STEM: Incorporates Science, Technology, and Engineering by discussing the
physical forces acting on airplanes, the technology that pilots use to fly airplanes,
and the engineering that goes into building airplanes.
Target Audience/Students:
The students will have sat through an entire day of school, so they might not
want to sit still through a long presentation. To combat this, the activity is hands-on
and interactive.
Our learners differ because some of the students are auditory learners, visual
learners, or interactive learners. This lesson incorporates all different teaching styles
that address all types of learners. In this lesson there is verbal and visual instructions
and explanations, therefore these approaches apply to auditory and visual learners.
This lesson is also interactive because the students get to go inside an airplane and
look at the different controls and they create their own airplane.
Students might have learning disabilities such as ADD/ADHD that might
impair their ability to fully participate and learn about the lesson. To overcome these
challenges, mentors will assist students who need more help and the lesson is
designed to keep students active, so that students are not having to pay attention to
a lecture for long periods of time.
Lesson Objectives:
Given vocabulary terms related to flying, students will be able to define the
term by demonstrating the air movement on their own paper airplane with 100%
accuracy after two tries.
Learning Environment:
Airport which will allow for students to see the technology first hand in an
airport setting, but it will be challenging to plan our time as it is limited.
Materials needed for Lesson:
Airplane
Pilot
Construction Paper
Crayons
Procedures:
The bus will drop the students off at the airport
 A student ambassador from the Professional Flight Program will greet
students.
Students are taken on a 10 minute basic tour of the airports facilities which
ends with them getting to sit in an airplane.
Students and their mentors will take turns sitting in a small airplane and the
student ambassador will go over the basic technology included on the airplane.
After every buddy group gets a turn sitting in the plane, the students will sit
down together.
The student ambassador will teach basic definitions:

Lift: upward, active force on aircraft wing which allows for the
plane to get and keep in the air
Thrust: a force produced by the engine that propels a flying
machine in the direction in which it is flying.
Example: a household fan
Drag: the force that acts opposite of thrust, so it goes against
the direction in which the plane is flying, it slows the plane down
Example: Putting your hand out of a moving car
window and feeling it pull back
Friction: the resistance that the airplane encounters when
moving through the wind
Gravity: The force that tries to bring the plane in a downward
direction
Example: When you drop a ball it will fall to the
ground
Hand out construction paper and crayons
Have students make and decorate paper airplanes
Show them this example while verbally instructing students on
the process

While students fly paper airplanes, have them answer questions about which
direction each of the forces (lift, thrust, drag, friction, and gravity) will be pulling the
plane in to test their knowledge on the topic.
Assessment:
Using their paper airplane, students will explain the direction that each of the
forces has on the plane.
Resources:
http://www.doe.in.gov/standards/fourth-grade-resources
http://www.pilotfriend.com/training/flight_training/aero/forces.htm
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/k-
4/features/F_Four_Forces_of_Flight.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_plane