No Child Left Inside Lesson Plan

Course: High School Physics

Grade Level: 11th or 12th grade
Lesson topic: Learn about the forces on a plane by building and testing different paper airplane shapes
and paper types
A brief overview of the activity
This lesson is to provide students with the knowledge of what forces are acting on a plane in order for it
to fly.
Students will work together in groups of 6 in order to test different paper airplane shapes and paper
types. Each student will be in a pair in their group and make the same shape as their partner but use a
different paper.
The purpose of this activity is to help students visually understand what helps a plane to fly.
Learning Objectives
After this activity,
Students will be able to recognize why planes are shaped the way they are
Students will be able to understand how planes can fly
Students will be able to understand the physics of lift, thrust, drag, and gravity
ISTE

Previous Learning
ISTE 1a. Promote, support, and model creative and innovative
thinking and inventiveness

Basic understanding of planes and how they can fly

Basic understanding of paper planes

Assessment:
I will be able to see the thought process behind what shape the groups thought was best. I am able to read
their observations and conclusion.

Activity
Rationales:
I chose to design this activity because it forces students to get outside.
I chose this activity because it is fun while still being informative. It applies a real life situation to what
students learn in school
I chose this activity because it gives students practice with working together and making observations
and drawing conclusions.
Participation structure:
This is medium-large sized group work (groups of 6), with teacher direction.
Procedures:
Teacher will pass out the worksheets.
Students will divide into groups of 6.
Teacher will hand out materials and briefly explain the activity.
Students will do the activity (creating the paper airplanes in the classroom the day before)
Next class, class will go outside to do the trials
In the classroom again, teacher will explain what is forces are behind planes flying and do a wrap up
discussion.
Airplane directions can be found here: http://www.10paperairplanes.com/how-to-make-paperairplanes/

Materials / resources
needed
15 pieces of plain paper
15 pieces of newspaper
15 pieces of construction
paper
5 pair of scissors
5 rolls of tape
Student Worksheets
5 Yard sticks
Masking Tape

Extension of Learning
From here, we will go more into forces in physics, such as velocity and acceleration.