Embedded Files
About the Lesson
This Lesson was developed with my group in MAE 5332. I call the lesson Drone Macchiato after its main character. The story behind Mr. Macchiato is that he wants to start an espresso delivery business that delivers shots via drones but he needs the students help to build and test the best design for the parachute to be used by his business.
Target Audience
The target audience for this lesson was a 6th grade STREAM classroom; however, it was designed in such a way that it can be scaled up and extension activities added to accommodate the standards at any secondary grade level.
Rationale for Unit
The purpose of the unit was to let the students explore the relationship between surface area and a parachute's falling speed, with an extension activity to explore how shape affects the falling speed. This exploration was fueled by their enthusiasm for skydiving and their love of competition. Additionally, the lesson allowed for us to tailor the learning to the students as we were assessing student understanding and allowed for simplifications or for more complexity as needed.
Project Description
Learning Objectives
Students should be able to define a 3-D shape and compute its surface area
Students have conceptual understanding of how surface area affects falling
Determine the relationship between surface area and drag as indirectly measured with time of descent
Students can develop and document testing procedure and understand why they chose their testing procedure
Timeline
Below is the timeline originally laid out in the unit. The implementation of the unit had to be modified due to losing two and a half days of planned instruction. Detailed breakdown of daily activities can be found in the Calendar
Day 1: Setup and initial formative assessment
Day 2: Exploring Forces
Day 3: Explore Surface Area 1
Day 4: Explore surface Area 2
Day 5: Build and Test Parachutes 1
Day 6: Build and Test Parachutes 2
Day 7: Create presentations
Day 8: Presentations
Central Theme
Throughout the unit, students would develop problem-solving skills through exploration of parachutes by analyzing the effects of surface area and shape on decent timing. On a more universal level, students consider how design affects function.
Project Products
Items Supplied to the students
Over the course of the unit students kept track of their learning and understanding in their Skydiving logbook along with data collection sheets to record their findings
Final Product
The final product of the unit was a parachute model to submit to Mr. Macchiato, a presentation detailing their testing procedures and testing results, and a formal letter to send to Mr. Macchiato.
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