How do the airplanes get up in the sky if they are so heavy and big?
What an excellent wonderment and it definitely got our students' minds-on to thinking about just how this could be! After some much needed "think time," our students were eager to share their theories behind such a puzzling concept. Here is what they had to say:
1. I know how they go up in the air. It's because they have a giant engine. - I.D.
2. I think an airplane can fly because of the wings because they are real wings. - R.L.
3. Well, you know the wings sore and then the pilot presses a special button and then it sores up in the air with the wings like a bird. - S.M.
4. I think it's the steering wheel that makes it fly because when you pull it into your belly button the plane goes up. We learned that from Daniel Cook. - J.S. (SK)
5. I think the airplanes go slow first, then they go faster, then faster, then even faster and faster and then it'll fly. - T.B.
6. The airplane are to go to the floor and then the wheels will turn and it go up the sky. - H.D.
7. Airplanes fly because it gets up in the air when the wheels go up into the plane because it is just in the sky now. - J.S. (JK)
8. Maybe when the airplane runs on the runway, it needs to go fast so that it can take off. - L.D.
9. I want to add to T.B.'s comment. Once it goes faster and faster before it's in the air you have to use the steering wheel because you have to pull it so that it will take off. - S.M.
10. It needs a ramp so it can fly. It has to be on the runway and then it goes straight and then it goes up and up and then it flies. - W.V.
11. When the bags go in the airplane's tummy, then it'll fly and now the machine will move and then the bags will move and in will go the airplane which makes it heavy but that's ok. - T.B.
How do you think airplanes fly?
Please leave a comment, idea, or question below because we would love to read your theories as we continue to investigate and learn more about airplanes!
I'm pretty sure I know but I want to tell you a bit about what my students were doing before the March Break. During learning centres I had a couple of boys who were really interested in making paper airplanes so I taught them a few different way to build them. Now how can you build a paper airplane and not have a little bit of an experiment to see how far each will fly? So I gave the boys a particular space between my desk and the door (past the washer and dryer) where they could test out the different types of planes. They spent days building and flying these planes. I will give you a hint that tape helped make them go farther.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your inquiry!
Kim Clark
This sounds so fun! Thanks for sharing your idea and students' experiences with a posed challenge! I will definitely be sharing this with our class as part of our airplane/airport inquiry! I even saw an activity on Pinterest where you can create a runway outside (incorporate measurement) when flying paper airplanes!
DeleteLook forward to sharing with you and thank you again for taking the time to share and comment!
- Jocelyn
Thanks for sharing the runway idea. I will have to go and search it out on pinterest as I don't think we are finished with this activity quite yet.
DeleteI love the fact that you included the students ideas and observations. There's a lot of ideas worth pursuing in their ideas, I can see this taking your class in several directions!
ReplyDeletePerhaps you might have a balloon station one day, where students can try propelling cars, or even planes (attach to a straw and thread string through, attach string like a clothesline) with inflated balloons.
If your inquiry takes another direction and includes flying creatures, perhaps you might enjoy using the "iBird" app to learn more about local birds including their songs and calls. I look forward to seeing how these ideas unfold.
Wow! Thank you so much for such incredible ideas! You have me thinking and I look forward to investigating your ideas further with our students theories and can't wait to see where it takes us! I will be sure to check out the "iBird" app anyways since it sounds intriguing! I know my Mom would love it.
DeleteIt was my mom who taught me to call the doves and cardinals down from the trees when I was just wee, so I can relate. Tell her we had a nuthatch flitting over our heads simply by playing its call, and no longer have to "psshhhhh" to find the catbirds in the park. iBird is the best $5 I ever spent on the phone.
ReplyDeleteI have to tell you, when I first offered these ideas this morning, I didn't know my PM class would come to school buzzing about the cardinals they saw on their walk to school and the robins spied in the park. I've cued up the birdsong issue of "Peep and the Big, Wide World" on my class site for Tuesday, hung a birding i.d poster, and dug out the binoculars. "We Can See Birds" can't be far behind.
I love this wonderment as well as the ideas shared by your Kindergarten students! I'm kind of curious too. I'm thinking to what my teaching partner taught the Grade 6's about flight. I remember a key term like "push," and I'm wondering if this term is involved somehow. I also wonder if it's the power of the engine. Could it be behind all of that metal getting up in the air? Now you have me thinking -- time for some research. :)
ReplyDeleteAviva
www.weinspirefutures.com
Thank you so much for your comment Aviva! I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on this post for myself and our class!
DeleteYour "wonderments" have our students thinking...We have a surprise visitor coming to visit our class on Tuesday and we hope to get some answers to support our theories. Look forward to sharing this week!