Author: Cristina Nicolaita, Physics teacher
School/Organization: Scoala Gimnaziala `Gheorghe Magheru~ Caracal, Romania
I have chosen to implement `A paper plane parade` as a lesson for an optional course I teach to my 5th graders, named `Mathematics and Science in the Society of Knowledge`. My 28 students are 11 -12 years old, and we will start Physics together next school year. But in the meantime, I try to involve them in fun activities related to Physics and STEM, and this was a great one, both in theory and in practice.
First day of implementation
We followed the structure of the Learning scenario, using the online resources the author proposed. After my students found out a lot of interesting things about the evolution of flying machines and saw a lot of pictures of them, they watched the video tutorials about creating a paper plane in the LS. Then the challenge was launched.
Image 1: The evolution of flying machines presentation
The class was split then in teams of 3-4 students, and they started research how to fold a paper plane that flies longer, and found a lot of tutorials on YouTube: //www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+fold+a+paper+plane
They decided together what design they would choose for their plane in order to have the longest flight and started to fold papers to obtain their planes. As the teams hadn’t finished their plane construction until the end of the one-hour lesson, we decided to continue the next day.
Second day of implementation
Image 2: The class paper plane collection
The second part of the implementation was dedicated to finishing the planes, to decorate and personalize them, and organizing a contest to see which plane has the longest flight. We organize it in the hallway in front of our classroom, to allow paper planes to fly longer distances.
Image 3: The paper planes on the hallway
Feedback
It was very exciting both for my students and for myself, as a teacher, and also as a referee of their contest. I created an answergarden to get the student’s feedback. They were asked about their opinion on the Paper plane parade activity. //answergarden.ch/4085604
The most answers were: creative, fun/ funny, interesting, exciting, beautiful and enthusiastic.
Thank you, Europeana, for this great activity!
Image 4: The answergarden wordcloud
Link to the learning scenario implemented: A paper plane parade (EN-CUR-609) – Teaching With Europeana (eun.org)
Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.
PDM 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Rijksmuseum.
