| Understanding Basic Concepts By
the end of Grade 6, students will:
- demonstrate and explain how the shape of a
surface over which air flows affects the role of
lift (Bernoulli's principle) in overcoming
gravity (e.g. changing the shape of airplane
wings affects the air flow around them);
- demonstrate and describe methods used to alter
drag in flying devices (e.g., flaps on a jet
aircraft's wings).
Developing Skills of Inquiry, Design, and
Communication
By the end of Grade 6, students will:
- design, construct, and test a structure that can
fly (e.g., a kite, a paper airplane, a hot-air
balloon);
- formulate questions about, and identify needs and
problems related to, the properties of air and
characteristics of flight, and explore possible
answersand solutions (e.g., investigate whether
the shape of a plane affects its flight path);
- plan investigations for some of these answers and
solutions, identifying variables that need to be
held constant to ensure a fair test and
identifying criteria for assessing solutions; use
appropriate vocabulary, including correct science
and technology terminology, to communicate ideas,
procedures, and results (e.g., use terms such as
lift, thrust, streamline, and aerodynamics, when
discussing flight materials);
- compile date gathered through investigation in
order to record and present results, using tally
charts, tables, labeled graphs, and scatter plots
produced by hand or with a computer (e.g., record
the flight distances of different styles of paper
airplanes, and present findings in a graph);
- communicate the procedures and results of
investigations for specific purposes and to
specific audiences, using media works, written
notes and descriptions, charts, graphs, drawings,
and oral presentations (e.g., hold an invention
convention on things that fly).
Relating Science and Technology
to the World Outside the School
By the end of Grade 6, students will:
- describe and justify the differences in design
between various types of flying devices (e.g.,
airplane versus helicopter, spacecraft versus
hot-air balloon);
- describe milestones in the history of air and
space travel; compare the special features of
different transportation methods that enable
those methods to meet different needs (e.g.,
features of bicycles, cars, airplanes,
spacecraft);
- assess whether the materials in student-designed
projects were used economically and effectively
(e.g., decide whether paper was wasted during the
construction of paper airplanes);
- describe practices that ensure their safety and
that of others (e.g., directing flying objects
away from oneself and others.
|
