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Students Build Paper Airplanes to Learn the Scientific Method

8/24/2017

Marcia Herndon

Students worked in pairs to form a hypothesis and built two almost identical airplanes - one with flaps and one without. We tested the airplanes outside by flying the airplanes, measuring the distance they flew, and taking the average over several different flights. We compiled our results and made a bar graph to visually represent the results. Each student assessed whether or not their hypothesis was supported.

According to our data, the paper airplanes without flaps will fly farther than the ones with flaps, although we identified three factors that could have affected our results: airplane design (some were dart shaped and others were more blunt and squared off), wind conditions, and throwing technique.

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