Design a Flying Machine
Students dream up and draw their own designs for futuristic and fanciful flying machines. They learn that doodling, sketching and brainstorming are related to the invention process, and about the early inventions that contributed to the history of flight and the state of modern aircraft. For brainstorming practice, they generate ideas for creative alternate uses for every day objects. Then, guided by a worksheet, they use their imaginations and apply their knowledge of aircraft design and the forces acting on them (gained from the previous lessons in the Airplanes unit) to design and create their own innovative flying machine models made from classroom construction and recycled materials.
Students design their own flying machines.Copyright 2010 xlibber, Flickr (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/xlibber/4676723312 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
The key to successful engineering is to bring together science knowledge, creative ideas, productive brainstorms, design/test/build cycles and scientific testing. When all these elements come together, engineers are likely to come up with successful designs. So, even though engineers need to know a lot about airplanes to design new ones, teamwork, communication and testing are required for new aircraft designs to be successful.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Work in a group to brainstorm a flying machine design.
- Incorporate the principles of geometry (including surface area, shape and symmetry) in their designs.
- Apply the forces of flight to a model design and justify the design in terms of those factors.
- Share their designs with the class and explain the important features to their peers.
- Understand the steps of the engineering design process.