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.
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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.