Watch It Move!

Objectives

• Children will use the Internet to do research and inquiry on the wind.
• Children will use their research to predict how far objects will move when they blow on them.
• Children will test their predictions by completing an experiment and recording their data in a chart.

Suggested Activities

• Have children go back to the Web site and read about what wind can move. Ask children to explain how they made their predictions and whether they were right or not. Why did they think that one object would go farther than another? Have children brainstorm what they could do to the experiment to change how far the objects move. For example, they could make the tissue into a ball to change its shape or they could rest the block on a toy car to give it wheels! Let them test their new predictions to see what changes.
• Hold a paper airplane flying contest. Encourage children to practice making different and unique kinds of paper airplanes, and throwing them to see which design catches the wind best. Have children create experiment books about their airplane design process. Each time they test a paper airplane, have children draw a picture of the model and write about its success or how it could be improved upon. Compile all of their designs into books showing their work. Before the final contest, have children try to predict which plane will fly the farthest.