I recently did an activity with students to answer a question by collecting and analysing data. I was inspired by similar activities from Bruno Reddy, Mean Paper Aeroplanes, and Julie Reulbach, Paper Airplanes for Measures of Central Tendencies. We started class by watching a video of the Paper Airplane World Championship - Red Bull Paper Wings 2015. This short video (about 3 minutes) shows the highlights of three paper airplane competitions; Distance, Airtime, and Aerobatics. After watching the video I let students know that we would be making paper airplanes for a distance competition. Brainstorming
PredictionsNext I showed students two different paper airplane designs; the Suzanne and the Classic Dart. I asked students to predict which would fly the farthest. I also asked how much difference, if any, they expected to see between the two designs. Most students predicted that the Suzanne would fly farthest. The next step was to create an experiment in order to test our predictions. The ExperimentWe split the class in half. Each half followed a specific set of instructions to fold one or the other of these planes (I had a handout with instructions for each design). We used different coloured paper for each design. Each student threw their plane three times and recorded each flight distance. We measured in feet since the floor tiles in the hallway were one square foot. The students then calculated their mean distance and shared this mean with their team. Each team then calculated a five number summary and sketched a box plot for their data. The ResultsStudents declared the Suzanne to be the clear winner. The low ceiling height in the hallway seems to have favoured the glider design. We conjectured that the Dart may have performed better than Suzanne if they were thrown outdoors where students could throw at a higher launch angle. We also conjectured that the greater variation in the data for Suzanne was a result of the more complex folding required. Some planes were folded very well and others were a bit of a mess. Reflection
We finished class by watching a video of the world record throw for distance (we just watched the first 3 minutes of the video). The Suzanne, designed by John Collins and thrown by football quarterback Joe Ayoob holds the Guinness World Record for the farthest flight by a paper aircraft. The record throw was 226 feet, 10 inches (approx. 69.14 m). Our longest flight was just over 40 feet. Students seemed to really enjoy this activity. It allowed them to incorporate some movement in class and asked them to use mathematics and statistics in an authentic way to answer a real question. Update 26 April 2022 - Looks like there may be a new world record paper airplane throw. An attempt from April 16, 2022 went 77.134m! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mdgta-0dtE Nova Scotia Mathematics Curriculum Outcomes Extended Mathematics 11 S01 - Analyze, interpret, and draw conclusions from one-variable data using numerical and graphical summaries. Mathematics 9 SP03 - Students will be expected to develop and implement a project plan for the collection, display, and analysis of data by: formulating a question for investigation; choosing a data collection method that includes social considerations; selecting a population or a sample; collecting the data; displaying the collected data in an appropriate manner; drawing conclusions to answer the question. EL
Ashley
11/9/2021 10:42:30 pm
Can you please include a link to the reflection worksheet? Or email it to me? Comments are closed.
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