Speed, Distance, and Timewith Paper Airplanes

Excel ProjectLee Ann DeHaas

Target audience

• 8th Grade

• Physics

• 27 Students

• General Education Class and Inclusion Class

• Two or three 50-minute class periods

Goals, Objectives & Outcomes

• Students will be able to• Measure the distance an object has moved• Identify the velocity of the object• Calculate the speed of the object after determining

the distance and time of motion

Lesson Outline• Problem of the Day: Which is travelling

faster, a plane flying 675 mph or a train running 500 mph? How do you know?

• Lesson: SMART Board notes on solving for S=D/T

• Activity: Have each student create a different type of paper airplane. Groups of 4 students each will test each plane by recording the time and the distance that they fly. Students must record all data in the excel file, solve for speed, and interpret their findings in a lab analysis.

Evaluation & Assessment

• Q&A Discussion (informal)

• Completed excel spreadsheet (formal)

• Completed Lab Analysis (formal)

Sense & Meaning

• Sense• Students activate prior knowledge of speed and

building paper airplanes

• Meaning• Gain meaning through activity and lab analysis

Primacy-Recency Effect

• Launch• Problem of the Day: Which is travelling faster, a plane flying 675

mph or a train running 500 mph? How do you know?

• Primacy (Prime time 1)• Solving for Speed notes

• Down time• Creating paper airplanes

• Recency (Prime time 2)• Flying paper airplanes

Learning styles

Concrete RandomConcrete Sequential

Abstract RandomAbstract Sequential

Citations

• New Jersey. Department of Education. New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. Web. 10 Oct. 1213.

• Sousa, David A. How the Brain Learns. 3rd. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, 2006.

•  MSETRamapo.org. Ramapo College. Web