Introduction

From the smallest insect to the largest aircraft, anything that flies obeys the same aerodynamic principles. If we break the word apart, aerodynamics is "air in motion." It's all about the movement of air and other gaseous fluids and the ways in which forces act upon bodies in motion relative to these fluids.

We've chosen what we think are outstanding resources from the Middle School Portal to help you teach the basics of aerodynamics and explain how those principles relate to technology and design. The Background Information resources can bring teachers up to speed and provide additional reading for students. In the Lessons and Activities section, we offer opportunities for students to use their critical thinking skills and creativity as they design, test, and redesign gliders, rockets, and more.

Although there is a great deal of historical information about aerodynamics that could be discussed here, we purposely narrowed the stream of resources to those that encourage students to experiment with technological design and function. Given these learning experiences, student should be prepared to articulate preferences in vehicle design and understand how the principles of aerodynamics influence vehicle performance.

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by Quentin Briggs, formerly of ENC Instructional Resources

Quentin Briggs prepared this publication as a technology education content specialist at ENC. He has nine years of technology teaching experience at the middle school level and four years experience as an industry professional in the area of training and development.

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Copyright March 2005 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.