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Build Your Own Wind Turbine
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Learners construct an electricity-generating wind turbine out of a plastic bottle.

Building Tetrahedral Kites
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Working in teams of four, learners build tetrahedral kites following specific instructions and using specific materials.

Egg-cellent Landing
Learners recreate the classic egg-drop experiment with an analogy to the Mars rover landing. The concept of terminal velocity will be introduced, and learners perform several velocity calculations.

Egg-Citing Physics
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In this demonstration about momentum, use physics to distinguish between a hard-boiled egg and a raw egg without cracking them open.

Model Wind Tunnel
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In this activity, learners build a miniature wind tunnel to measure force. Learners construct the model out of Lexan plastic, a fan, and a precise digital scale.

Why do Raindrops Sometimes Land Gently and Sometimes Land with a Splat?
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In this activity, learners examine raindrop bottles (prepared ahead of time) to observe in slow motion the behavior of falling droplets and explore concepts such as drag and terminal velocity.

How Do Things Fall?
Learners engage in close observation of falling objects. They determine it is the amount of air resistance, not the weight of an object, which determines how quickly an object falls.

Cylindrical Wing
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In this design and physics challenge, learners construct a cylindrical wing, fly it, make modifications, and determine how the changes affect flight patterns.

Look Mom, No Wings!
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In this activity about flight, learners explore how high they can jump. Learners dip their finger in ink or dirt, then jump as high as they can and mark paper attached to the wall.

Design a Parachute
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After a discussion about what a parachute is and how it works, learners create parachutes using different materials that they think will work best.
Build a Borneo Glider
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In this inquiry-based activity, learners investigate the basic forces of flight as they construct their own paper glider that represents a rainforest creature from Borneo (large, tropical island in So

Nosedive
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This is a great activity for investigating the basics of lift and drag as they pertain to flight. Learners will discover how to avoid "taking a nosedive" by building their own paper airplane.

Parachute Parade
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In this engineering activity, learners design parachutes to give toy figures safe landings. This activity is great for practicing an important STEM skill--changing only one variable at a time.

Draggin' Boats
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Learners design, build, and test models of "dragon boats" made from up to three milk cartons.

Make and Fly a Helicopter
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Learners follow the template to build and fly a paper helicopter.

Sky Glider Challenge
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In this design challenge activity, learners use two helium-filled balloons to build a blimp that can travel in a straight path across the room.

Water Rocket Launch
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In this activity, learners explore rocketry and the principals of space flight.

Eggshell Inertia
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In this physics activity (page 14 of the PDF), learners gain a better understanding of how friction and mass affect objects by comparing the rotational inertia of raw and hard-boiled eggs.