Soaring Science: Year 5’s Ultimate Paper Airplane Challenge!

Everybody wanted to make paper airplanes at school, right? I know I certainly did. Well, that’s exactly what Year 5 have been doing this afternoon…

In science this half term, we have been exploring forces. So far we have developed our knowledge of gravity through dropping various objects from the same height, focused on friction by testing just how grippy our school shoes are and today we explored the wonders of being aerodynamic.

We began the lesson by thinking about whether or not a scrunched up piece of paper of a flat piece of paper would hit the ground first. Of course, we’ve already learnt that the gravitational pull is the same for all objects and are all pulled to the Earth with the same velocity. However, the scrunched up piece of paper hit the ground first…WHY!?

Well, we discovered that this is due to aerodynamics, air resistance and the surface area of an object. Formula One cars are built to be streamlined meaning that they will encounter less air resistance. At the other end of the spectrum, parachutes capture the air creating more air resistance, allowing people to travel to the ground at a slower rate (rather them than me).

We put the children’s skills to the test as we carried out ‘The Ultimate Airplane Building Contest’. Children were scored based on their design, aesthetics and distance thrown. It was a great afternoon filled with jaw-dropping designs and distances! Blimey…science is so fun!

Tom