Mercy Catholic College, Chatswood

Year 8 Science 2023

Assessment Task One: OEI

Experiment: Investigate how the effect of fuselage (straw) length on an O-Wing performance (flight)

You will design an experiment to test the effect of different fuselage (straw) lengths on the O-Wing’s
performance (flight distance).
As a group:
• perform your experiment
• measure and record your results
• draw conclusions about the effect of wing size on the O-Wing’s flight and make suggestions for
how your experiment could be improved to yield more accurate results
• you will be using a template to write a Scientific Report on your experiment and submit it via the
Google Classroom platform.
• only one student from the group will need to submit the assessment task for marking.
 The “O-Wing” Experiment

PART A: LESSONS 1-2

Students will build and test the effect of wing size on the O-Wing’s performance. This is a group
activity.

Each group will be required to collect the following materials and equipment:
• 10 plastic drinking straws
• a ruler
• cardboard
• pencils
• sticky tape
• scissors.

You must work collaboratively within your group. No prior knowledge of scientific concepts is assumed
for this lesson.

Your teacher will demonstrate the construction of an O-Wing and then demonstrate its flight and discuss
all the variables that might affect each test flight and how these might be controlled. Some of the
variable that you may need to control are:
1) the force of the throw
2) the height of the release
3) the angle to the ground at release (e.g. throwing horizontal or up towards the sky)
4) the angle of the wings to the ground (e.g. wings above straw, or wings below straw)
5) wind.

You will be required to

1. identify any other variables affecting the flight of an O-Wing (the independent, dependent, controlled;
to ensure your test is a fair test);

2. control as many variables as possible for each test flight of their O-Wing gliders;

3. measure and record the length of each test flight;

4. ensure the experiment is reliable,

4. record your qualitative observations of each test flight;

5. draw conclusions about the effect of wing size on the O-Wing’s performance;

6. make suggestions for how their experiment could be improved to yield more accurate results.

You will be working in small group of 3 students (your teacher will determine your groups).
All group members must read the instructions carefully and cooperate to prepare the O-wing model for
testing, contribute to the successful completion of the experiment and be involved in a WHOLE CLASS
DISCUSSION of the results of the first experiment.
Making an O-Wing:

1. Carefully cut a strip of card to the
size required
2. Put a piece of sticky tape on the end
of the strip. Curl it over so the ends
overlap a little and stick down. It
helps to tape down the inside of the
wing too.

3. Lay a piece of tape on the table, 4. Centre both wings on the straw
sticky side up. Stick the straw onto carefully like this.
the middle of the tape. Push the
wing onto the tape and secure it
carefully.

Flying an O-Wing
Hold the O-Wing in the middle of the
straw Throw horizontally and gently
In class experiment: Wing size experiment

Introduction
You are going to conduct a scientific experiment to find out if O-Wings fly better with different size
wings, or wings that are the same size. You will make and test fly several O-Wings and record the
results of each test flight.

What is the aim:

What is your hypothesis:

Variables

For the results of your experiment to be useful, each test flight must be conducted under the same
conditions. This means you need to control the variables that affect an O-Wing’s flight as best you
can. Write down all the variables you can think of, that might affect the O-Wing. How can you control
each of these variables?
Method

Make four O-Wings as described below.

Use strips that are 2.5 cm wide for ALL the wings (i.e. both large and small wings)

O-Wing Number Small wing length Large wing length

1 25 cm 25 cm

2 20 cm 25 cm

3 15 cm 25 cm

4 10 cm 25 cm

Results

Conduct the test flights and record your results in the table below. There is also space below to write
down any observations about how well each O-Wing flew (e.g. did it glide, or spin out of control).

Table - O-Wing test flight results

Distance flown
Small Wing Size
Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Mean/Average
25 cm *
(*equal size
wings)

20 cm

15 cm

10 cm
Observations

Conclusions

What conclusions can you draw from the results of your experiment?

Can you think of any ways to improve the experiment?