T E A C H E R S N O T E S Focus: Students explore air and its properties. They will also learn about the connection between air pressure and weather, forces that can be used for flight, how these forces can be controlled, and the environmental pros and cons of flight. Learning Goals: Students will have opportunities to learn how to correctly use the terms air pressure, dense, mass, particle, volume, aerodynamic, airfoil, gravity, lift, pressure, control surface, drag, propel, thrust, airfoil, fossil fuel, global warming and greenhouse gas that the properties of air make flight possible that gases lighter than air can also help some aircraft fly how fast moving air can help an object lift off which forces act to slow down flight how flying devices are propelled forward the difference between airplanes and gliders how airplanes are controlled during flight the pros and cons of flight to our environment Discussion Prompts: How is air and air pressure used to help us fly? What forces are used to help flight go faster or slow down? How are airplanes and airships controlled during flight? How is air used to go faster? How do aircraft both benefit society and harm the environment? How can these environmental influences be reduced by humans? Assessment Prompts: Do students demonstrate, in their discussions and answers to questions, understanding of the science vocabulary used in the cards for this unit? Are students able to carry out the skills of scientific inquiry, following activity safety procedure steps safely and accurately, making observations when appropriate? Assess students responses during discussions. - Do students understand that air has properties that influence flight? - Do they know that air pressure and forces can be influenced in order to go faster or to slow down? (gravity, lift, drag) - Do they understand how flying devices use air to go higher or faster? - Can students explain how the properties of air influence their daily life? - Can students identify and explain how flight has both a negative and positive effect on the environment and our life? - Can students suggest ways to reduce negative environmental effects from flight? Links to PCSP Student Book The Sky s the Limit: Card 1: see Lessons 1-3 Card 2: see Lessons 5-7 Card 3: see Lessons 5-8, and 11 Card 4: see Lessons 8, 9, and 11 Card 5: see Lesson 10
Focus: Students explore the properties of air and gases that help aircraft fly. Activity Description: A new screen answers the Think question when the student clicks on each picture to gather information. Students click on the orange icon to finish the Think question. Learning Goal: Students learn about how hot-air balloons work. Ask Students: How is air controlled in a hot-air balloon to make it work? Assessment: Can students correctly describe how a hot-air balloon works? Introduce students to the topic with the video of a hot-air balloon. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have. Activity Description: A new screen answers the Think question. Students can move the red bar to see how air pressure influences weather. Learning Goal: Students learn that air pressure influences weather. Ask Students: How does air pressure affect weather? Assessment: Are students able to describe how air pressure changes in different weather? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes Activity Description: Students click on the dots to discover the parts of a hot-air balloon. Learning Goal: Students learn about the parts of a hot-air balloon. Ask Students: What are the different parts of a hot-air balloon? Assessment: Are students able to describe/draw the different parts of a hot-air balloon? Activity Description: In the new screen that appears, the Think question is answered. Students click continue to get more information about the Think question. Students then click on the pictures to learn more about types of airships. continued next page 2
continued from page 2 Learning Goal: Students learn about other types of airships and how they use air to fly. Ask Students: How did these airships use air to fly? How are they similar to a hot-air balloon? Assessment: Are students able to describe/draw the different parts of a hot-air balloon? Activity Description: In the new screen that appears, students click on the orange Start button to see how the experiment works. This answers the Think question. Learning Goal: Students enhance their understanding of air pressure and force. Ask Students: What is happening to the air in this experiment? What is happening to the air pressure? Assessment: Did students follow safety procedures in conducting this investigation? Are students able to do the experiment and explain what is happening with the air and air pressure? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes 3
Focus: Students explore how fastmoving air can help an object lift off and how lift can be increased. Activity Description: In the screen that appears, the Think question is answered. The students click the orange icon to complete a timed activity that asks the students to test each car s spoiler for speed and lift. Learning Goal: Students explore how wing shape and angle affect speed and lift. continued next page Introduce students to the topic with the video showing a hurricane lifting the roof off a house. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have. Activity Description: In the new screen that appears, students are introduced to the page Dangerous Air, which answers the Think question. Learning Goal: Students knowledge of air force is reviewed. Ask Students: How can the force of air be dangerous? Assessment: Do students understand how air pressure changes in a situation like a truck and car on the highway side by side? Can they think of any other situations in which air and air pressure could cause situations like this? Activity Description: In the new screen that appears, the Think question is answered by clicking on each diagram to see how air pressure changes when you change wing angle. Students can click on the orange icon to review how airflow changes when wing position changes. Learning Goal: Students review their understanding of how wing shape and angle influence air flow and lift. Ask Students: How does changing the angle of the wing or speed of the wing change lift? Assessment: How does changing the angle of the wing or speed of the wing change lift? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes 4 Activity Description: In the new screen that appears, students are to drag and drop captions into a diagram to create a fact sheet. This activity is timed and self-checking. Learning Goal: Students enhance their knowledge of how air moves around an airplane. Ask Students: How does air move around an airplane to help it to fly? Assessment: Can students describe/draw and label how an airplane uses air to fly?
Activity Description: The screen Paper Capers illustrates how to make a paper airplane. Learning Goals: Students will consolidate their understanding of air to create a paper airplane that will fly. Ask Students: Can they make a paper airplane that uses the properties of air to fly? Assessment: Can students explain what they did to their airplane to make it fly using flight vocabulary? continued from page 4 Ask Students: What happens to the lift and speed when the angle is changed? Assessment: Can students describe/draw how the air moves around each shape and angle and how this will influence speed and lift? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes 5
Focus: Students discover which force acts to slow things down that fly and how flying devices are propelled forwards. Activity Description: A new screen appears that answers the Think question. Students click on the dots to discover how a bird s body is built for flight. Students click on the orange icon and can explore how each wingspan helps each bird to fly. Learning Goal: Students explore how wing shape helps a bird to fly. Ask Students: How does the shape of a wing make it possible to fly? Assessment: Can students describe some wing shapes and how they affect the flight of the bird each belongs to? Introduce students to the topic with the video of a space shuttle landing. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have. Activity Description: A new screen A Speedy Shape answers the Think question. By clicking continue, students will learn about streamlining. Learning Goal: Students discover how streamlining makes movement through air faster. Ask Students: What is streamlining? How does it reduce drag? Assessment: Are students able to draw a labelled diagram of how streamlining works with a car? Bird? Airplane? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes Activity Description: Students click on the next three screens to answer the Think question. Learning Goal: Students discover how propellers work. Ask Students: How do propellers use air to move? Assessment: Do students understand how a propeller uses air to move? 6
Assessment: This screen answers the Think question. By clicking each airplane picture in the timeline, students can learn how airplanes have changed over time. Learning Goal: Students will expand their knowledge of how airplane and flight technology has changed over time. Ask Students: How has flight technology changed over time? Assessment: Can students describe several changes that have occurred to improve flight technology? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes 7
Focus: Students explore the difference between airplanes and gliders and how airplanes are controlled during flight. Activity Description: A new screen appears and the text answers the Think question. Students click on the continue to see how a glider uses air currents to stay aloft. Learning Goal: Students will explore how a glider uses air to stay aloft. Ask Students: How does a glider use air currents to fly? Assessment: Are students able to describe how gliders fly? Introduce students to the topic with the video of a hang glider. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have. Activity Description: Students click on each bird to see how it uses air currents to fly and to answer the Think question. Learning Goal: Students will explore how birds use air currents to fly. Ask Students: How do birds use air currents to help them fly? Assessment: Are students able to give several examples of how birds use air currents to fly? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes Activity Description: A new screen answers the Think question and shows the three basic movements of an airplane. Students click on each airplane to explore pitch, roll, and yaw. Students click on the orange icon to do a timed activity where they drag and drop labels to complete a chart about forces. Clicking the orange icon again completes the Think question and students can learn about the parts of an airplane and their functions. continued next page 8
continued from page 8 Learning Goal:Students will explore the three kinds of airplane movement. Ask Students: What are the three kinds of airplane movement? Assessment: Can students demonstrate the three movements of an airplane with their hand or another object and properly label the movement? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes Activity Description: A new screen called From Liftoff to Landing appears. Students click through the text and pictures on each screen to answer the Think question. Learning Goal: Students understand how the space shuttle takes off and lands. Ask Students: What is the process of the shuttle liftoff and landing? Assessment: Are students able to explain/draw and label the process of shuttle liftoff and landing? 9
Focus: Students explore the benefits and harm of flight to our society and the environment. Activity Description: A new screen answers the Think question. Students can then click on the orange icon to complete a timed activity to match the correct person with the type of aircraft. This activity is selfchecking. Learning Goal: Students will investigate how aircraft has multiple uses. Ask Students: How are aircraft used in our world? Assessment: Are students able to describe how different aircraft serve different functions in our community? Introduce students to the topic with the video of planes at the airport. Discuss the video and any comments or questions students may have. Activity Description: As students click through the screens to answer the Think question they learn about Father Goose, Bill Lishman s story about using flight to help birds. Learning Goal: Students discover how flight can be used to help animals. Ask Students: How did Bill Lishman use his flying machine to help the birds? Assessment: Are students able to describe his story highlighting how he worked to help the birds? Assessment: A new screen called Load and Unload appears. Students answer the Think question by clicking on the dots that highlight the roles of various transport vehicles from an airport. Learning Goal: Students will discover the many vehicles that are used to help an airport function. Ask Students: What other vehicles help to keep an airport function? Assessment: Are students able to give several examples of these vehicles and explain their purpose at an airport? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes 10 Activity Description: Students sort captions by dragging and dropping them into Pros and Cons to examine the effects of flying on the environment. Students then click on the orange icon and complete the activity to match viewpoints with people. Both activities in this section are selfchecking. Learning Goal: Students extend their understanding of the pros and cons of flying. Ask Students: What are the pros and cons of flying? Assessment: Can students explain some of the pros and cons of flying and suggest some possible solutions for the negative effects from flight?
Activity Description: Students answer the Think question by completing a timed activity about the noise pollution that is made by airplanes. Learning Goal: Students discover how much noise pollution is made by airplanes. Ask Students: How does noise pollution from airplanes affect living things? Assessment: Are students able to describe some airplanes and how much noise pollution is made by these flying machines? How can this problem be solved? PCSP Interactive Science Teacher s Notes 11