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| |  | SCI-LIT LINKS QUICKPLAN
PARACHUTES
(QuickPlan developed by Dr. Ken Mechling, Clarion , Pennsylvania)
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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 ACTIVITY LINK: Children design, construct, and test parachutes, identifying factors that affect their fall.
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
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
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
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