Motorized Aircraft

Going back to the web we started at the beginning of our project, it was plain to see what we had covered and what we still wanted to find out. Taking a look at the standards we still had left, I narrowed down to three choices for the students:
1) Study of the employees that work at an airport or on airplanes
2) Research and build different types of motorized aircraft
3) Study animals that fly - butterflies in particular

The kids voted and it was a very close outcome - but we decided to pursue motorized aircraft, then follow it up with butterflies (stay tuned for those when the weather gets a bit warmer!)

We started by researching different types of motorized aircraft in the 20th century. The kids found some really neat airplanes that I never knew existed! We narrowed it down to about 15 and then the kids picked their top three!


Here are their aircraft groups:

The children will work in their groups to research their aircraft, draw up a design and list out all the materials they will need to make it, create a 3D model of their aircraft, and finally create a digital presentation to show their new learning about their chosen aircraft.