Lab: Paper Airplanes Worksheet printable pdf download

2 pts ec

Lab: Paper Airplanes

printing

Purpose:

To design & create a paper airplane that can either cover the greatest distance or have the

You will be working with a partner to take turns being the Pilot (throw the plane) or the

greatest speed.

Engineer (measures and records the plane’s flight time and distance).

Consider all of the factors that are important in a paper airplane: 

1. Plane design

2. Size of paper

3. Plane mass (add paper clips?)

4. Throw technique & angle

Decide which ONE factor from above you are going to explore in today’s lab: 

Independent Variable: We are going to change the____________________________________________

Dependent Variable: We are going to measure the ____________________________________________

Controls: We will not change the: __________________________________________________________

Airplane #1 

1. Make a paper airplane (duh). 

2. Head to the testing area. The Pilot should stand at the Launch Line while the Engineer heads to the waiting area 

with the meter sticks, stopwatch, & clipboard. 

3. The Engineer prepares the stopwatch, tells the Pilot when to throw, records the flight time of the plane, and 

measures the flight distance. Repeat this two more times for a total of three trials. 

4. Reconvene to calculate the average time, distance, & speed of this plane. 

Time  

Distance 

Speed  

Flight 

Notes about Flights 

(s) 

(m) 

(m/s) 

Trial 1 

Trial 2 

Trial 3 

Average 

13. Based on your data, what improvements can be made to your airplane?  

14. What ONE variable are you going to change for Airplane #2? _______________________________________________ 

Lab: Paper Airplanes Worksheet