Science · Year 5

Active learning ideas

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.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• NC-KS2-Science-Y5-Forces-1

• 30–60 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• 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.

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.

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

Activity 02

• 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.

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.

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

Activity 03

• 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.

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.

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

A few notes on teaching this unit

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.

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.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• 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.

  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.

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

  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.

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Methods used in this brief

• Experiential Learning