Air Resistance

Air resistance is a concept that students often struggle to visualize. Hands-on activities allow students to directly experience and measure the effects of drag, making the abstract concept of air resistance tangible. This experiential learning approach builds a strong foundation for understanding why objects move through the air as they do.

• Year 5
• Science
• 3 activities
• 30 min–60 min

Experiential Learning

⏱ 60 min·Small Groups

Parachute Design Challenge

Students design and build parachutes using different materials and sizes. They then test their parachutes by dropping them from a set height, measuring the time it takes to reach the ground and observing how air resistance affects their descent.

Prepare & details

Explain how air resistance affects falling objects.

Facilitation Tip: During the Parachute Design Challenge, encourage students to think critically about the relationship between parachute material, size, and descent rate as they iterate on their designs.

Setup: Varies; may include outdoor space, lab, or community setting

Materials: Experience setup materials, Reflection journal with prompts, Observation worksheet, Connection-to-content framework

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness

Experiential Learning

⏱ 45 min·Small Groups

Shape Drop Investigation

Provide students with identical masses attached to different shapes (e.g., flat, spherical, pointed). Students predict which will fall fastest and then conduct timed drops to compare their results, analyzing how shape influences air resistance.

Prepare & details

Analyze how the shape of a vehicle affects its speed through air.

Facilitation Tip: During the Shape Drop Investigation, ensure students are systematically changing only the shape variable while keeping the mass constant to isolate the effect of air resistance.

Setup: Varies; may include outdoor space, lab, or community setting

Materials: Experience setup materials, Reflection journal with prompts, Observation worksheet, Connection-to-content framework

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness

Experiential Learning

⏱ 30 min·Individual

Streamlining Simulation

Using a fan and lightweight objects, students observe how different shapes interact with moving air. They can experiment with placing objects in the airflow to see which shapes are most easily pushed or slowed down.

Prepare & details

Design an experiment to compare the air resistance of different shapes.

Facilitation Tip: During the Streamlining Simulation, prompt students to articulate how the airflow around an object, not just its speed, affects the drag force it experiences.

Setup: Varies; may include outdoor space, lab, or community setting

Materials: Experience setup materials, Reflection journal with prompts, Observation worksheet, Connection-to-content framework

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness

Teaching This Topic

When teaching air resistance, focus on making the invisible visible through experimentation. Avoid simply stating facts; instead, guide students to discover the principles through observation and data collection. Emphasize that mass is not the sole determinant of fall speed, directly addressing common misconceptions.

What to Expect

Students will be able to explain that air resistance is a force that opposes motion and that factors like shape and surface area influence its magnitude. Successful learning is evident when students can predict and explain the differing fall rates of objects based on their design and how they interact with air.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During the Shape Drop Investigation, watch for students who assume that objects with the same mass will always fall at the same rate, regardless of shape.

What to Teach Instead

Redirect students by asking them to compare the fall times of the spherical versus the flat shape, both with identical masses, and prompt them to explain the difference using the concept of air resistance and surface area.

Common Misconception

During the Streamlining Simulation, students might believe that air resistance is negligible because it's not always obvious.

What to Teach Instead

Ask students to predict how a flat piece of paper and a crumpled ball of paper will behave in the moving air from the fan, then have them observe and explain why the flat paper is pushed more significantly by the airflow.

Assessment Ideas

Discussion Prompt

After the Parachute Design Challenge, ask students to share which design choices they think were most effective and why, referencing their test results and observations about air resistance.

Quick Check

During the Shape Drop Investigation, ask students to predict the fall order of three different shapes before dropping them, and then record their reasoning based on shape and surface area.

Peer Assessment

After the Streamlining Simulation, have students explain to a partner how the shape of their object affected its interaction with the moving air, using terms related to drag and resistance.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge: For students who quickly grasp the concepts in the Parachute Design Challenge, have them research and incorporate aerodynamic principles like aspect ratio into their next parachute iteration.
• Scaffolding: For students struggling with the Shape Drop Investigation, provide a simple data table with columns for shape, estimated fall time, and observed fall time to guide their observations.
• Deeper Exploration: Use the Streamlining Simulation to explore how changing the speed of the air impacts the observed drag on different object shapes.