Observation Coincidences

This past Wednesday, I walked into my Grade 6 classroom for observation to be greeted by a pleasant surprise. My Grade 6s were finishing up a unit on flight and a Mad Science presenter was coming in to do activities with the students. I was learning forward to sharing my new paper airplane knowledge with the students.

As the day progressed, the class reviewed principles of drag, aerodynamics and how a plane creates lift by utilizing areas of low and high pressure. Check out the link below to learn more about this! But finally, the time came for the paper airplane competition. The Mad Scientist challenged the students to create a plane that would stay aloft for the longest period of time. The students begged me to participate, so I folded up a winning, flying piece of paper. Fortunately, I have been working on this winning design for the past 9 weeks.

With all of the practice and experimentation on paper airplanes I've had throughout my Genius Hour, I was able to blow the students away with the time my paper soared through the air. This experience just made my Genius Hour even more satisfying and looking forward to every Grade 6 Flight unit from this point on. 

Genius Hour Reflection ft. Learning Object Support

Today in Tech class, we focused on the application of learning objects to support the development of understanding of content, so I decided to take one of the tools we discussed and apply it to help teach how to make a Classic Paper Airplane.

I chose to use Quizlet.com as my learning object. Quizlet is used to as a way for students to review content in a fun and engaging way by gameifying the traditional flash card approach. By making it into a game, students are more motivated to learn because it is fun and allows the teacher to monitor how they are performing because all results are recorded. Need a quiz? Quizlet has you covered, simply select the questions you want to use and hit generate test. Ta da!

Check out my Quizlet on how to make the classic paper airplane below:

https://quizlet.com/_35y011


Additionally, I was thinking about my Genius Hour in terms of an educational perspective and wanted to see where it would fit within the curriculum. An obvious connection that I found was to Grade 6 Science- Flight Unit. Building and testing paper airplanes allows students to explore concepts of aerodynamics, practice technological problem solving skills and develop/practice the terminology that is associated with aerodynamics and flight. Check out the further breakdown of the Genius Hour below for further ideas on how to tie in paper airplanes to the curriculum.

Grade 6 Science: Understanding Structures and Mechanisms- Flight

2. Developing Investigation and Communication Skills
2.1 follow established safety procedures for using tools and materials and operating flying devices
2.2 use scientific inquiry/experimentation skills to investigate the properties of air
2.4 use technological problem-solving skills (see page 16) to design, build, and test a flying device
2.5 use appropriate science and technology vocabulary, including aerodynamics, compress, flight, glide, propel, drag, thrust, and lift, in oral and written communication

3. Understanding Basic Concepts
3.1 identify the properties of air that make flight possible
3.3 identify and describe the four forces of flight – lift, weight, drag, and thrust
3.4 describe, in qualitative terms, the relationships between the forces of lift, weight, thrust, and drag that are required for flight
3.5 describe ways in which flying devices or living things use unbalanced forces to control their flight
3.6 describe ways in which the four forces of flight can be altered