This story begins like many of my teaching stories begin...curriculum crunch! With mandated state testing occurring in April, I needed a high-interest way to combine several learning goals in math, science and language arts. So my fifth grade kiddos and I flew off into "the wild blue yonder" together, because let's face it, after state testing, everyone's brains are mush. Worksheets and internet learning programs just don't cut it. We had been sitting in front of our computers for weeks as we clicked answers on a screen. We needed to move!
We began by researching types of paper airplanes on the internet. Students identified a type they wanted to fold. They took their research sheets home, finished their research there and brought their completed airplane back to school. When I used this project in summer school, we did the research together.
Once they had their airplanes at school, we shared their different designs. We read about thrust, force, and aerodynamics and watched some online videos about aviation and design. Then my kids were ready to fly. One of our learning targets in this project was to learn about the scientific process. Students wrote hypotheses before testing their planes. They conducted five flight trials and recorded their distances in inches.
My kids needed more practice with converting customary measurements, so after they had recorded their data in inches, they converted it into feet and yards. We were able to review range, median, mode and mean as well. I used this project to also teach my students about line plots by plotting our class data together. In addition, we reviewed bar graphs and learned about line graphs.
This portion of the project took us about a week of one-hour sessions. However, we had touched on so many math and science
concepts, it was worth every minute. Plus, my fifth graders were ENGAGED! For this time of year, that felt miraculous! After this, I was ready to teach more about controls and variables. We spent time learning about why controls and variables are so important in the scientific process. I used a lunch room example in our discussions. If the lunch ladies wanted to know which pizza was the most popular with fifth graders, and they ordered pepperoni pizza from Little Caesar's and cheese pizza from Jet's Pizza, would they be able to answer their question? My kiddos determined that all pizza needed to be ordered from the same restaurant in order for the question to be answered with accuracy. From this discussion, we
moved on to applying control and variable to our paper airplane investigation. I gave each student the folding directions for a basic dart airplane. These airplanes became the control for the assessment phase of this project. 
I wanted to test my students ability to conduct the experiment on their own. I designed this part to assess their mastery of these concepts: Measurement, customary measurement conversion, graphing skills (coordinate, line and line plot), problem-solving, writing a math/science response, comparing and contrasting two sets of data, and identifying the control and variable of an experiment.
My kids flew their control airplanes, recorded their data and analyzed it. Next, they took that same airplane and added one feature to it. This became their variable. Some students taped the fold together. Others added a paperclip to the bottom of the plane. Some taped a rudder on. There were many different variable designs. However, each plane only had ONE variable. Then they tested their airplanes
I developed a quick rubric for my assessment. I had shared this rubric with my kids at the beginning of the assessment phase of this project, so that they would understand the target expectations.
This project rocked our world for two weeks, but it also saved our sanity. We have so many curriculum expectations, and I've found that melding subjects into creative learning experiences is the way to go. My kiddos were engaged, excited, and on fire!
I've also used this in my summer school teaching experiences. Summer school is often a special kind of misery for many of our kids, isn't it? It needs to be focused, but it MUST be fun, too.
If you haven't checked out my cross-curricular project-based learning experiences yet, you just gotta...they'll save your sanity!
Until next time!
