End of Year Activity: Paper Airplane STEM Activities with Lesson Plan

This STEM mini-unit provides students with an opportunity to explore several science and math concepts with fun, engaging paper airplane activities. Students have the opportunity to learn about how things fly, learn how the design of a plane affects its flight, create a paper airplane, and test the paper airplane's ability to fly.

This no-prep print and go mini-unit is a great end of year activity! Keep students engaged and learning while having fun!

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Here's a peek at what students will do during this mini-unit:

1. Mini-lesson about how things fly and the four forces that affect flight (gravity, lift, drag, and thrust).
2. Evaluate 3 paper airplane designs to determine how the design affects the 4 forces (gravity, lift, drag, and thrust).
3. Design and create a paper airplane
4. Complete 5 or 10 trials to test how far the plane will fly either as a solo flight or with a partner.
5. Graph the data collected from measuring each trial flight in either feet or meters.
6. Analyze the flight data and determine how the paper airplane can be redesigned to improve flight distance.

Optional Activities:

• Students can repeat the activity with a new, improved paper airplane design.

• Students convert distance traveled from feet into inches and find the average distance traveled in inches.

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The following is included in this resource:

Page 2 – Lesson Ideas and Suggestions

Page 3 – 4 – How Do Things Fly – Mini-lesson on the forces that affect an object flying with Answer Key

Page 5 – 6 – Evaluating Paper Airplane Design With Answer Key – Students evaluate how different designs are affected by the four forces

Page 7 – Basic Paper Airplane Folding Instructions – Basic Dart Plane

Page 8 – Design A Paper Airplane – Students make a plan for their paper airplane and then create it.

Pages 9 – 10 – Solo Flight Recording Chart for 5 Flights in Feet or Meters

Pages 11 – 12 – Solo Flight Recording Chart for 10 Flights in Feet or Meters

Pages 1 3 – 20 – Graphs to Record Solo Flights in Feet or Meters

Pages 21 - 22 – Duo Flight Recording Chart for 5 Flights in Feet or Meters (Students work with a partner and record distance of both paper airplanes.)

Pages 23 - 24 – Duo Flight Recording Chart for 10 Flights in Feet or Meters

Pages 25 – 32 – Graphs to Record Duo Flights in Feet or Meters

Page 33 – Reflecting on My Paper Airplane Design – students evaluate the design of their paper airplane and how it affected flight; then students design a new and improved paper airplane.

Page 34 – 35 – Measurement Conversion – Feet and Inches activity for 5 flights or 10 flights

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Need more End of Year Activities? You may be interested in these -

End of Year Digital Class Memory Book for Google Slides™- 3rd, 4th, & 5th Grades

End of Year Bundle: Paper Airplanes, Famous Aviators, & Bonus Activities

I Need My Monster Read Aloud with STEM, ELA, and Math Activities

4th Grade Mixed Review Math Task Cards - Print and Digital Version for Google Classroom

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Happy Teaching!

Eileen Jarman