Year 6 Science homework....

[katelyle]

"Make a Parachute"

Anybody got any beyond the obvious peice of fabric several bits of string and a very light soft toy?

ooooh i have set this before

the ones that work best (IME) is using a carrier bag using as big a surface area you can (the bigger the surface area the greater the air resistance).

Experiment with the length of the string to which you attach your weight to aswell.

have fun

I've just found a site that shows you how to make a Leonardo-style pointy top parachute - we might make a few and have a play (weather's horrible here today, so there's nothing else to do!) Would you expect yours to be able to talk intelligently (sort of) about how parachutes work and why some are better than others, or would you talk about that when you see what they've made?

Thanks for the carrier bag idea - don't know why I didn't think of that!

yes you would expect them to be able to do that.......espeically with SATS looming in a week!

Give me a shout if you need a hand

Thanks again! You know, I had completely forgotten about SATS - what sort of a bad mother am I!!!!!

Dob'e use material, use the tinniest tissue paper you can get. Attach a marble to the bottom using cling flim. Make it as big as you can. You want to aim for maximum drag and upthrust and minimum mass.

martianbishop knows better than me
she teaches big kids

We made a great one out of the thin tissue papaer yuo can use to wrap up gifts. You want a very large surface area and the smallest mass you can possibly get.

Kids tend to want to over complicate things, but all that does is to increase the mass.

Rectangle of tissue paper. Threads in each corner. Cling flim to 'tie' the passenger in. If you want to be clever you can re-inforce the tissue paper using those hole punch re-inforcer rings where you put the threads.

Try making different sizes and see which star up longest

Thank you - I think we're going to have an interesting day! I've got some wonderful tissue paper with stars on (combining dt and science!) and I think if she'd like to we'll make the Leonardo one as well. And maybe one out of a carrier bag.....

What was that you said about KIDS making things complicated..............!!!!!