1. Bio-Inspired Flight
Melissa Burns; Amy Jameson Sharpsburg Elementary, Norwood, Ohio; Gilbert A. Dater High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
Goal: Students will understand the forces that act on a plane, apply the knowledge gained to predict flight conditions and complete follow up activities.
Applications: Build models, study airfoils, use FoilSim
Society: Improved flight, saving fuel, safer air travel,
Careers: engineers, pilot, military, biologist
6th grade students
12th grade physics students
Built paper airplanes to learn about the forces that act on a plane.
Complete math and computer problems
Build a plane and fly it successfully!
Make flying tubes and fly a Zagi to learn about forces that act on a plane
Use FoilSim and lift equations to analyze conditions of flight
Research the Wright Flyer and identify the engineering that created it.
Ohio Standards: Science Inquiry, Scientific Ways of Knowing, Science and Technology, Physical Science
Misconceptions addressed:
The motion of an object is always in the direction of the net force applied to the object.
Acceleration always means that an object is speeding up.
Acceleration is always in a straight line.
Engineers and scientists use the same models of experimentation
References:
Acknowledgements: Dr. Kelly Cohen, Associate Professor of
Aerospace Engineering, Cody Lafountain, Curtis Fox,
Andrea Burrows, Dr. Anant Kukreti, Philip Grosvenor
Project RET/REU is funded through NSF Grant # EEC 1