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Overview: After
reading the book Fire-Fighting Aircraft and Smoke Jumpers,
students construct simple parachutes, identify variables that
affect their fall, and practice landing them in a safe zone.
Booklink: Fire-Fighting Aircraft and
Smoke Jumpers by Henry M. Holden, Enslow Publishers, Inc., UK,
2002. ISBN 0-7660-1720-6
Science and Math Activity Link:
Children design, construct, and test parachutes, identifying
factors that affect their fall. They collect, record, and
analyze data.
Objective: Students will construct
parachutes, practice landing them in a safety zone, identify and
test variables that affect their fall, and describe the
aerodynamics of parachutes.
Science Processes and Content:
Processes—observing, predicting, communicating, measuring,
inferring, hypothesizing, experimenting, recognizing and testing
variables, gathering, recording, and analyzing data
Content—gravity, air resistance, streamlining, mass, air
currents, fire, design-redesign technology
Mathematics Processes and Content:
Processes: create a chart and/or graph to organize, record, and
communicate mathematical ideas, communicate mathematical
thinking to peers and the teacher, and design studies to further
investigate conclusions or predictions. Content measure using
centimeters rulers, collect data using trials, justify
conclusions based on data.
National Science Education Standards:
Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (2)
Physical Science, (5) Science and Technology, (7) History and
Nature of Science
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Principles and Standards: Measurement, Data Analysis and
Probability, Communication, Representation
Materials: plastic grocery or
supermarket-type bags (one for each child), scissors, cellophane
tape, string or thread, metric measurers, large paper clips
Procedure:
1. Have the children read (or read to them) the story
Fire-Fighting Aircraft and Smoke Jumpers. Focus on the role of
firefighters who parachute out of airplanes to fight forest
fires. Have the children discuss the use of parachutes as
described in the story.
2. Secure enough plastic grocery bags for each child in your
class. Have them measure approximately 14cm from the bottom of
the bag. Then cut across the bag in a line parallel to the
bottom of the bag. This bag bottom becomes a rectangular
parachute canopy.
3. Each child should now cut four strings approximately 35cm in
length. Tape the ends of the string to the outside of the bag
(near the open part of the canopy), one string to each of what
appears to be each one of four corners.
4. Now have them gather the four loose string ends together and
tie them to the large paperclip. The paperclip is the simulated
smoke jumper.
5. Have the children stand (no need to crawl up on anything
high), holding the parachutes by the canopy tops, and practice
dropping them so they drift to the floor.
6. Having made two parachutes of your own, roll one up into a
very tight ball so that it will not open when dropped. Hold both
the ball and the open chute at the same height, one in each
hand, and ask the children to predict which will hit the floor
first if released at the same time. Record their predictions.
Demonstrate the drops several times, asking the students to
infer (explain their observations) why the balled parachute hits
the floor first every time. The children should infer that the
air doesn't offer much resistance to the balled chute (it is
streamlined) but air does offer resistance to the open
canopy--which captures air on its way to the floor, slowing its
fall.
7. Next, give each student a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 copy paper for
placement on the floor. Tell them that they are going to drop
their parachute 10 times, attempting to land the smoke jumper
paperclip in the safety zone of the paper. Pretend that all the
area around the paper may be on fire and the paper is the safety
zone. Have them plan a chart and/or graph for their 10 trials,
test their parachutes, and record their data.
8. Discuss their results with them, identifying the variables
that affect fall (air currents, drop height, drop position
relative to the safety zone paper, etc.).
9. Encourage the children to experiment with their parachutes
(design-redesign) to achieve greater accuracy, describing their
findings with the class.
10. Challenge the students to use a variety of materials to
construct their own parachutes at home. You may wish to set
aside a later time for sharing their experimental results.
Safety: None
Related Books:
Smoke Jumpers by Joanne Mattern, PowerKids Press, New
York, 2002. ISBN 0-8239-5978-3
Bernie Magruder and the Parachute Peril by Phyllis
Reynolds Naylor, Aladdin Paperbacks, New York, 1999. ISBN
0-689-83166-8
Parachuting Hamsters and Andy Russell by David A. Adler,
Gulliver Books, Harcourt, Inc., San Diego, 2000. ISBN
0-15-216414-6 |
