TEACHER’S GUIDE
Follow-up Discussion
Research indicates that students will retain their previous misconceptions about a topic, in preference to new information, until they actively
recognize and correct their own errors. Therefore, it is important to have
your students re-examine the facts/beliefs they put on their “Everything
We Think We Know About…” list. It might also be helpful to review the
list by marking each entry with a “+” or “-” to show which facts were
correct and which were incorrect.
Discussions that ensue from thought-provoking questions provide a good
way to assess the overall depth of student understanding. The following
are some suggested discussion questions.
1. Discuss how a helicopter can fly without wings.
2. Review with students the four basic forces involved in flight. Based
upon their understanding of these principles, have them explain
which force is strongest when a plane is speeding up along the
runway, when it is slowing down, when it is rising into the air and
when it is landing.
3. Discuss how a pilot controls the direction of an airplane.
TEACHER’S GUIDE
TEACHER’S GUIDE
• www.allstar.fiu.edu/
NASA’s Aeronautics Learning Laboratory for Science, Technology and
Research presents informative pages on the principles and history of
aeronautics.
• www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~flight/
Ohio State University presents “Science Fun With Airplanes,” a detailed site
with pages discussing the science behind flight, how to control an airplane and instructions on how to build an experimental glider.
• www.fi.edu/flights/own2/forces.html
This site developed by the Franklin Institute contains hands-on activities
that convey the scientific principles of flight as well as historical information about aviation.
Flight
Suggested Print Resources
• Dalton, Steven. The Miracle of Flight. Firefly Books,Willowdale,
Ontario, Canada; 1998.
Grades 5–8
• Richards, Jon. The Fantastic Cutaway Book of Flight. Copper Beech
Books, Brookfield, CT; 1998.
Follow-up Activities
• Taking what they have learned from the program, have students apply
their knowledge of flight to the construction of paper airplanes.
Sponsor a paper airplane contest, in which the longest flight duration is
the goal.
• Show students an image of the instrument panel from an airplane’s
cockpit, and research the different tools needed by pilots in order to
fly safely. Have students decide which force (gravity, lift, thrust or drag)
each instrument is designed to measure or control.
• In three groups, have students research the history of flight. One group
can present a report on the history of aviation from 1900 until 1930, the
second group can study the period from 1930 through 1960 and the
third group can research and report on aviation from 1960 to today.
• Replicate one of the investigations from the show in order to show students that lift is caused by increased air pressure below an object.
TEACHER’S GUIDE CONSULTANT
Conrad M. Follmer
25 years as a K–5 Science & Math Coordinator for a Pennsylvania public
school system, currently an independent consultant to elementary schools.
TITLES
• ATOMS & MOLECULES
• CHANGES IN PROPERTIES
OF MATTER
• CHARACTERISTICS OF WAVES
• ELECTRICITY
• ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS
& MIXTURES
• FLIGHT
• FORCES
• FRICTION
• GRAVITY
• LIGHT
• MAGNETISM
• MOTION & BALANCE
• THE PERIODIC TABLE
• PROPERTIES OF MATTER
• SIMPLE MACHINES
• SOUND
After Viewing: Have your students share video excerpts
that fascinated or surprised them, then challenge your students to prove or disprove the accuracy of the facts they
put on their “Everything We Think We Know About…” list.
Discuss what else they learned and use the follow-up questions and activities to inspire further discussion. Encourage
students to research the topic further with the Internet and
reading resources provided.
Internet Resources
Periodically, Internet Resources are updated on our Web site at
www.libraryvideo.com
• wings.ucdavis.edu/Book/Flight/intermediate/forces-01.html
This K-8 Aeronautics Internet textbook details the forces involved in
flight and lists some interesting lesson plans and activities.
(Continued)
Teacher’s Guides Included
and Available Online at:
6/04
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800-843-3620
Teacher’s Guide and Program Copyright 2000 by Schlessinger Media,
a division of Library Video Company
P.O. Box 580, Wynnewood, PA 19096 • 800-843-3620
Executive Producers: Andrew Schlessinger & Tracy Mitchell
Programs produced and directed by First Light Pictures, Inc.
All rights reserved
tudents in grade 5–8 classrooms possess a wide range of
background knowledge. Student response to this video
program is sure to be varied, so the teachers at these grades
need all the help they can get! This guide has been designed
to help the 5–8 science teacher by providing a brief synopsis of the program, previewing and follow-up questions,
activities, vocabulary and additional resources.
Before Viewing: Extensive research tells how important
it is for the teacher to discover what the students know —
or think they know — about a topic, before actually starting a new unit.Therefore, after prompting discussion with
the pre-viewing questions, lead your class to create a
“Everything We Think We Know About…” list.You may also
wish to preview key vocabulary words, and have students
raise additional questions they hope will be answered.
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Program Summary
Humans are intrigued by flight, and, in the last century, have developed
many ways to take to the skies, from airplanes and helicopters to hot air balloons and rockets. In order to understand how to sustain air travel, one
must first understand the forces involved in flight — gravity, lift, thrust and
drag — and how they interact. These forces oppose each other; in order to
fly, an object’s gravity must be overcome by lift, and thrust must be greater
than drag.
In the 17th century, English physicist Sir Isaac Newton theorized that
gravity is the force of attraction between all objects with mass. Objects on
or near Earth are pulled towards its center by gravitational force because of
the Earth’s great mass. The force of gravity pulling on an object is called
weight. In order to remain in flight, a craft must overcome gravity in a controllable way by achieving lift.
What is lift? In the 18th century, Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli
observed that when the speed of fluids like air and water over a surface
increases, pressure decreases.Wings on airplanes have a special shape that
enables air to travel faster over the top surface, increasing pressure under
the wing. The result is lift, which counters the force of gravity and pushes
the aircraft up and away from the surface of the Earth. Investigations of
Bernoulli’s principle provide fun ways to see the effects of differences in
fluid pressure.
While the wings of a plane are designed to provide lift, the plane’s propellers and engines provide thrust, the force that moves the plane forward.
This forward movement creates the moving air that provides lift, and is
opposed by another force — drag. Drag is the force of air resistance that
slows the plane down and is caused by friction between the air molecules
and the surface of the plane. In order to move a plane forward, there must
be more than enough thrust to overcome drag. Once flight is achieved by
balancing these four forces, a plane’s direction is controlled with flaps and
rudders that change the amount of drag, pushing it higher or lower and to
the left or right.
While a fixed wing plane speeds down a runway to get air flowing around
the wings and create lift, a helicopter does the same thing by spinning its
overhead propeller.A close look at a helicopter’s rotor blades reveals that
they have the same special shape as an airplane wing. This airfoil shape can
also be seen in a bird’s wings, which are perfectly shaped to create lift. Of
course, there are examples of flying objects that work without an airfoil,
such as a hot air balloon.
Vocabulary
The following words are included for teacher reference or for use with students. They are listed in the order in which they appear in the video.
gravity — The fundamental force of attraction between all objects. The
more mass an object has, the greater the force of its gravity.
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mass — The quantity of matter that is contained in an object.The more
mass an object has, the greater weight it has in a gravitational field.
inertia — The property of matter that causes an object to resist a change of
motion, direction or speed. The amount of inertia depends upon the
object’s mass.
weight — A measurement of the force of gravity pulling down on an
object.
lift — The force that opposes gravity, pushing or lifting an object upward,
away from the Earth’s surface.
thrust — The force that propels an object forward and opposes drag.
drag — The force of air resistance that opposes the motion of an object.
Sir Isaac Newton — (1642–1727) The English physicist and mathematician who studied gravitational forces and motion, and is considered the
founder of physical science. Newton formulated the Theory of Gravity and
developed the Laws of Motion.
force — A push or a pull on an object, causing a change in motion.
air pressure — The force of air molecules pushing on every surface area
with which they come in contact.
fluid — A substance with particles that can flow easily and yield to changes
in pressure.Water and air are examples of fluids.
airfoil — The special shape of an aircraft wing, comprised of a top rounded
surface and a flattened bottom surface.
propulsion — The forward movement of an object brought about thrust.
Daniel Bernoulli — (1700-1782) The Swiss mathematician who was the
first to observe that fluids like air and water create low pressure areas
when passing over a surface at high speeds.
Leonardo da Vinci — (1452–1519) An Italian painter, sculptor and inventor who drew up plans for various flying machines centuries before functional planes were invented.
Orville and Wilbur Wright — (1871–1948, 1867–1912) Aviation pioneers
who became the first to fly an airplane in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, NC.
Amelia Earhart — (1897–1937) Aviation pioneer who was the first
woman to fly alone across the Atlantic in 1932 and who disappeared during
an attempt to fly around the world in 1937.
air resistance — Also known as drag, the force due to air particles that
opposes thrust, therefore slowing down motion.
rudder — The moveable surface on an aircraft’s tail that controls left and
right turns.
flaps — The moveable surfaces on a plane’s wings and tail that help control
its direction.
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Pre-viewing Discussion
Before students generate their list of “Everything We Think We Know
About…” for this topic, stimulate and focus their thinking by raising
these questions so that their list will better reflect the key ideas in this
show:
1. What are some of the ways humans have come up with to fly?
2. How does an aircraft overcome gravity?
3. What parts of an aircraft allow it to fly?
After the class has completed their “Everything We Think We Know
About…” list, ask them what other questions they have that they hope
will be answered during this program. Have students listen closely to
learn if everything on their class list is accurate and to hear if any of their
own questions are answered.
Focus Questions
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What are the forces involved in flight?
How are gravity and weight related?
What did Sir Isaac Newton discover?
How do sailboats utilize air pressure?
Why is it important to know that air is a fluid?
What is propulsion?
How is an airfoil shaped? Why?
What did Daniel Bernoulli observe about fluids like air and water?
What does Bernoulli’s Principle have to do with flight? With sailing?
What is lift?
In the investigation with the ping-pong ball, why is the ball pulled
towards the running water?
In the investigation with the beach ball, why does the ball stay in
mid-air?
How do the forces of lift and gravity oppose each other?
What is the main function of propellers and jet engines?
What is thrust? How do jet engines produce thrust?
How does air pressure cause a sailboat’s motion?
How did the Wright brothers contribute to the science of flight?
Who was Amelia Earhart?
What force opposes thrust?
How does a pilot control the direction of an airplane?
How does a pilot control the direction of a helicopter?
What is the purpose of a plane’s flaps?
How are the forces of flight balanced during parasailing?
What controls the direction of a hot air balloon?
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