Overview of STEP Curriculum Module-Summer 2006

I. Title of Module: 

• Fly Drive

II. Author:  

• Howard A Stern

III. Grade Level:  

• High School 9-11

IV. Nature of The Students:  

• Urban Minority

V. Purposes and Overview: (Course Description):

Fly Drive was designed to introduce students, who had never had high school physics, to some of the concepts of force which physicists study.  This was accomplished through three multi-day labs:  toothpick bridge construction, model solid-fuel rocketry, and propeller (air) powered cars.

Lab 1:  Toothpick bridge

• History of bridges.

• Types of bridges – beam, arch, cantilever, suspension.

• Forces on bridges – compression, tension, bending, shear.

• Evaluating efficiency of bridges – structural efficiency and economic efficiency

• Testing strength of a bridge – destructive testing

• Estimating measurements based on everyday reference objects/conversion between metric and English measurement

Students in each class form small groups representing construction companies.  Each company has to design and build a bridge according to a building code specification, and within a budget for materials (toothpicks, etc).  Students have to write checks, maintain a check register, draw plan views of their bridge design, manage time in order to complete within the allotted time frame, and solve problems as they arise in construction.  Completed bridges are tested to failure in a destructive testing process carried out by students under supervision of the instructor.

 Lab 2:  Model rocketry

• What is force – introduction to the vocabulary scientists use to talk about force.  Gravity, speed, velocity, acceleration, newton, drag, terminal velocity

• Using trigonometry to remotely measure distances

• Working safely with flammable materials and propellants

Students build model rockets from scratch, making an airframe out of copy paper and gum tape, fins from heavyweight card stock, parachute from a sheet of plastic, etc.  Students form teams to manage to various tasks of conducting a rocket launch – safety, tracking, recovery, launch.  Completed rockets are tested using standard Estes solid fuel rocket engines (A8-3) and a remote electronic ignition system.  Tracking team measures the angle to parachute deployment, and all students then use trig tables to calculate the height each rocket achieves.

 Lab 3:  Air powered cars

Students build small cars out of cardboard, soda straws, and paper clips.  A cardboard propeller was powered by rubber bands.  Students explore what variables made some cars move faster and slower than others.

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Last Updated July 27, 2006 by Roz Krakowsky
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