Maresa Tucker, Keys Lower School Science Teacher, taught her third grade students today about lift, a force upward that helps objects stay in the air. After their initial lessons about lift, it was time for students to “take flight”, and see how forces of lift affected the flight of a paper twirly bird. Each student built two twirly birds, one per instructions, and the other with one modification of the student’s choice, such as an attached balloon or shortened wings. Students made three observations about the descent of each twirly bird, like how the weight of the balloon made their bird descend quicker or how shortening the wings made the bird twirl faster, before making a final analysis about how lift impacted the flight of each twirly bird.
