Experiences

Experiments

P.L.

Romania

High Secondary School

Science

Teaching in class

Direct

Attitudes and motivation are both important aspects for the learning process. Success in learning, positive attitudes to learning and motivation to learn are linked. It is what experiments provide students with: satisfaction to achieve a task successfully.
My students learned about air resistance while making a parachute. They had to design one. We needed: a plastic bag, scissors, string and a small object (acting as a weight). I asked students to cut out a large square from your plastic bag, then to trim the edges so it looks like an octagon; then asked them to cut a small whole near the edge of each side; then to attach 8 pieces of string of the same length to each of the holes, to tie the pieces of string to the object you are using as a weight, then use a chair or find a high spot to drop your parachute and test how well it worked, remember that you want it to drop as slow as possible. Our parachute descended slowly to the ground. The explanation: when you release the parachute the weight pulls down on the strings and opens up a large surface area of material that uses air resistance to slow it down. The larger the surface area the more air resistance and the slower the parachute will drop. Cutting a small hole in the middle of the parachute will allow air to slowly pass through.