Adding Reach and Ownership with Paper Airplane Circuits

University faculty members, librarians, and support staff developed hands-on, consumable, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricular materials that could be inexpensively provided to large audiences. Goals included fostering STEM interest, teaching STEM principles, and encouraging continued exploration in home and school settings. This case describes design processes to realize these goals through basic circuits with paper airplanes and simple origami. Following several design implementations, kits costing ~$0.33 each were created and distributed to learners. Within these kits, learners created a back-lit paper airplane as they explored concepts regarding circuit definitions; open, closed, series, and parallel circuits; shorts; polarity; and current. Additional activities included LED bracelets, cubes, and greeting cards. Within this paper, we document successive design decisions, failures, reflections, and iterations that moved goals to reality. We also describe new design challenges, including waste management, sustained exploration, and advanced concept introductions.

Integrating Smartphone-Controlled Paper Airplane Into Gamified Science Inquiry for Junior High School Students

Integrating science learning with game experience and physical manipulatives not only overcomes the rigidity of traditional teaching, but also makes the learning experience pleasant for students and improves their science inquiry ability. Today, with the popularization of mobile devices and technology, both the value and feasibility of gamified science learning have increased significantly. However, several studies showed that students might get lost or feel bored during science inquiry. To let students enjoy the science inquiry process and improve their science process skills, the researchers combined mobile technology, game design elements, and science inquiry and designed the gamified science inquiry activity “we are aircraft designers”. Here, students designed and manipulated a smartphone-controlled paper airplane by mobile devices connected via Bluetooth. To investigate the effects of the gamified science inquiry activity, the flow state and science process skills of 71 students of a junior high school in China were explored. The proposed gamified science inquiry activity enhanced flow and science process skills of students with high and middle level flow. No differences were found on flow and science process skills between males and females. Based on these results, the guidelines for the design of a gamified science inquiry activity are discussed.

Flow analysis on the ventral gap of a paper airplane

It is a challenging work to design micro aerial vehicle with great aerodynamic performance because the tiny wingspan at low-Reynolds-number cannot provide lift efficiently. The aerodynamic configuration of a classic delta-wing paper airplane is investigated in the present work with numerical method to discover its potential for micro aerial vehicle designs. Furthermore, the effect of the ventral gap on the aerodynamic characteristics of the paper airplane is investigated herein. The stall angles of attack reach 37.5° and 40°, respectively, for ventral opened configuration and the closed one, and the maximum lift coefficient reaches 1.49 and 1.46. The ventral-opened configuration has negative pitching moment coefficient (−0.01431) even at 37.5° while the closed one has a positive coefficient (0.01402). The reason may be the gap leads to a strong back-flow vortex before the trailing edge in the ventral gap which produces a strong nose-down moment. Generally, the ventral gap improves lift and dramatically influences the longitudinal stability compared with the one without it.

The Great Race

This is a case in which students build paper airplanes from templates provided by the instructor as well as those which they can design themselves. They extend their ideas on flight in by using the principles developed in the paper airplane race to power simulated rockets made out of balloons. They consider such variables as materials, mass, and design to see which combination of material design and mass are most effective in constructing an airplane or a rocket that flies the fastest and the furthest in a competition. Contestants are rated on team consideration of variables needing to be controlled in order to have a fair assessment of the designs. When the designs are agreed upon and constructed, a race is conducted. The ideas developed in the paper airplane competition are then used to design a rocket carrying a paper airplane capable of flying across the classroom in the fastest time with the most direct route. This is a simulation of the space shuttle flights. The parameters of the races are developed by the participants.

Launching mathematical success

Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All (NCTM 2014) calls for integrating into the classroom real-world activities that connect mathematical ideas to other subjects and contexts. Motivated by the desire to make these connections, we devised a paper airplane design task to engage students in various STEM concepts.

Paper Airplanes

This short poetic response explores my experience performing the play Heavier than Air as a queer teacher; folding my body into these characters, feeling the tensions in the stories, and their resonances with my own. The form of the poem mirrors the process of folding the paper airplanes referenced and used as props throughout the play. As I performed the poem, I folded a paper airplane, and let it take flight on the last line.

Using Air to Move Paper Airplanes and Balloon Rockets

This is a case in which students build paper airplanes from templates provided by the instructor as well as those which they design themselves. They extend their ideas on flight by using the principles developed in the paper airplane race to power simulated rockets made out of balloons. They consider such variables as materials, mass and design to see which combination of material design and mass are most effective in constructing an airplane or a rocket that flies the fastest and the furthest in a competition. Contestants are rated on team consideration of variables needing to be controlled in order to have a fair assessment of the designs. When the designs are agreed upon and constructed, a race is conducted. The ideas developed in the paper airplane competition are then used to design a rocket carrying a paper airplane capable of flying across the classroom in the fastest time with the most direct route. This is a simulation of the space shuttle flights. The parameters of the races are developed by the participants.