Sci & Tech Reflections

Sci & Tech Reflection

Sci & Tech Reflection

Sci & Tech Reflection

Sci & Tech Reflection

Sci & Tech Reflection

Sci & Tech Reflection

This flight unit was very fun and educational. My class learned a lot from this flight unit, like how to build a tissue paper hot air balloon. To make a hot air balloon we needed six sheets of tissue paper, scissors, and glue, and at the end some tape and wire.

We needed to stick two sheets of tissue together then another two sheets and another two sheets, like a sequence and let them dry. Then we stuck them all together, and then we cut the extra tissue paper off to shape it and it round. We glued all the pieces together and put at the top of a round sheet of paper on the inside of the balloon. Then we put some tape on some wire and put it in the bottom of the balloon where the air goes in and folded a little bit over the round wire put some glue and let in dry.

Then we tested our tissue paper balloons out with some warm air to check if there were any holes to patch up, if there were any holes we would patch them up or cover them with a decoration. The reason there were not supposed to be any holes is that the balloon would not work very well and have very little take off time and poor lift off. The balloon my partner and I worked on was very well designed. The scientists who came to guide us demonstrated some of the properties of air (which we already knew a bit about because we did a couple of class experiments) and how these affect flying devices. The properties of air are that hot air rises and cold air drops. The principles to make a plane take off are lift, drag, weight and thrust which help a plane move / take flight or land. You can check out our balloons in the blog: http://www.gr6flightballoon.blogspot.com/ Actually that part of our science unit was cool. We had the chance to show all of activities in our class blog. We even had the chance to make comments and give suggestions on what we were learning.

We also visited the Air and Space Museum which was a great experience to look at some airplanes and learn about the history of the hangar. We also got to go in groups of four to build kites with Ms.Rambaran’s class. I was fortunate to work in a team that was dedicated and had a great sense of humour. We built a diamond kite and we are convinced that if the string was stronger it would have taken off much more successfully.

Sci & Tech Reflection

Sci & Tech Reflection

Sci & Tech Reflection

Sci & Tech Reflection

This is my Grade 6 Flight Unit reflection. I really enjoyed the flight unit this year because there were many enjoyable things I participating in. One thing I did was attend the digital field trip to the Air and Space Museum. We were hosted by tour guides Ron and John who provided us a detailed and informative tour. They were very patient with us as we used digital cameras and ipods to record our interviews with them and our day at the museum.

We also worked on perspectives in aviation. That was when the two Grade 6 classes split up into nine groups, each group focused on one perspective to persuade the reader our concerns or support of a perspective of aviation. However, the one thing I enjoyed the most was the tissue paper hot air balloon project.

The tissue hot air balloon challenge was an enjoyable way of learning the properties of air and the principals of flight. After learning briefly about the history of flight, Mr. and Mrs. Richter taught us how to design and build our own hot air balloons. After a series of complicated folding and smudging glue, we had finished our balloons. Each balloon also had a unique theme. Once we had finished making our balloons, we launched them into the air in the school gym. Mr. and Mrs. Richter also explained how the four forces of flight (weight, lift, thrust, and drag) worked on a hot air balloon. Lift is when you heat up the balloon to make it go up or rise, thrust is when the wind pushes the balloon forward, weight is when the air in the balloon cools and then lowers, and drag is when the wind pushes against the balloon making it go backwards. This was a good way to move our learning from properties of air into principles of flight - hands on and very visual.

This is only one of the many things we did during of exhilarating hands-on flight unit. If you want to learn more about what our Grade 6 classes did and how air and flight works, you can visit our blog at http://www.gr6flight.blogspot.com/. Have fun!

Sci & Tech Reflection

STUDENT REFLECTIONS

What reflections can you make based on your new learning experiences throughout the Flight Unit?

Students are to provide a snapshot of their reflections before finalizing a detailed reflection with evidence from their learning experiences this term through a choice of media (Photo Story / Comic Life / Audacity / Podcast / Movie Maker / Posting / Scanned Document). Final reflections will be posted in this blog.

We are all looking forward to viewing / reading / listening to your reflections about your learning experiences. Keep up the great work everyone :o)