1, 2, 3...FLY! Students on the Lower Campus have been participating in their first STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) activity this year: the paper airplane design challenge, Pickin' Up STEAM.
Students in 2nd through 6th Grade have been learning the Engineering Design Process (EDP) by running through several attempts to construct the furthest-flying paper airplane. They exercised the structure of the EDP by brainstorming, researching, discussing, testing, and evaluating their aerial creations, with Flights of Fancy contributing to various models. Throughout this experiential learning process, they also discussed properties and forces of flight like lift, wing width, nose sharpness, and air resistance.
After heats within each grade, the final flyers representing their homerooms gathered in the Barn on Wednesday to compete in front of their cheering classmates and launch the culmination of what they had learned.
Congratulations to the following pilots who built the longest-flying planes in their grades:
- 2nd Grade: Blake K.
- 3rd Grade: Aidan L.
- 4th Grade: Neevan C., Cameron P., Finn T., Price S.
- 5th Grade: Ace J.
- 6th Grade: Maxwell J.
Among these high-flyers, Pilot Ace soared to victory with the longest flight of the entire Lower Campus, Barn-storming his plane over 70 feet—the length of the Gym.
In exploring the EDP, students realized how applicable this iterative exercise can be. Teachers and students made analogies to many contexts, from overcoming writer's block and the drafting process to improving chocolate chip pancakes to cleaning one's room. If you want to solve a problem or make something better, learn more about the EDP!
Stay tuned for more exciting STEAM activities, including those for our youngest Pre-Kindergarten through 1st Grade engineers.
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