Flight School Forces 4: Missile (Weight)

This resource is a the fourth of a set of five lesson plans with STEM activities based around a group of 10-12 year olds, wanting to get their ‘wings’ from Flight School, by completing activities on forces associated with flight.

This lesson is the final of the four forces and it is WEIGHT. This force will already be understood by a lot of children as it is part of everyday life. However, it is worth guiding their attention to weight in relation to flying aircrafts. By the end of the lesson students should have an overall understanding of the four forces involved in flight. They will also have gained some good problem-solving experience which has hopefully helped them develop some useful skills for their futures.

Other sessions involve DRAG, LIFT, THRUST, and the fifth AEROPLANE pulls together all the learning. The sixth section contains the learner self-evaluation and learning log which has also been included in this bundle.

This bundle includes: extensive teacher notes bundle includes pdf and editable versions of the following:

Teaching Notes - contents for each lesson includes:
• Science behind the lesson
• Materials best for the session
• Parachute shapes
• Plenary responses

List of resources specific for this lesson.
• Main Lesson Plan (as a PowerPoint Resource)
• Learning goals
• Overview
• Set Up
• Task
• Plenary and Feedback

Learning outcomes in the Curriculum for Excellence and associated benchmark
SCN 2-08a: I have collaborated in investigations to compare magnetic, electrostatic and gravitational forces and have explored their practical applications.

TCH 2-04b: I am developing dexterity, creativity and confidence when working with textiles.

TCH 2-09a: I can extend and enhance my design skills to solve problems and can construct models.

MTH 2-17b: Through practical activities, I can show my understanding of the relationship between 3D objects and their nets.

Flight School has been created as a teaching resource for the City of Edinburgh Council’s ‘Curiosity Club’, an Intervention Strategy initiative that is currently operating in Council schools.

This resource was created as part of the GeoScience Outreach Course, which is a 4th year undergraduate course in the School of GeoSciences aiming to provide students with the opportunity to develop their own science communication and engagement project.

Author: Joanna Barrie, adapted by Kay Douglas and Charlie Farley.

Unless otherwise stated, all content is released under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 license.