Flight is a popular topic in primary and intermediate schools. Things with wings are all around us – both natural and mechanical.

Flight is an ideal way to explore the physical world and forces.

This collection provides some big science ideas, probing questions and suggestions for teaching flight.

In particular, it uses flight to explore the science capabilities.

Research shows that students are unlikely to comprehend some of the physical science concepts until senior high school or later.

Our advice is to keep it simple. Focus on one or two big science ideas appropriate to student needs and abilities. Students will likely have several opportunities during their education to build their knowledge of forces!

Resource information

The resources in this collection are written to build teacher content knowledge and vocabulary.

Each resource has a note behind it. Click on the yellow border to access the notes.

This is a very small sample of flight resources on the Hub. Use the Explore topics tab on the navigation bar and scroll down to find the flight topic. This will take you to many more resources.

Flight: related topics

Think outside the square if you are using flight as a school-wide focus.

Additional ways to explore flight include:

Use the Hub's Flight topic or search function to find additional resources.

Flight - big science ideas
Level 1 and 2

  1. Some animals and some machines can fly.

  2. Plants cannot fly, but their seeds may be able to float.

  3. Flying, floating and falling are 3 different concepts.

  4. Forces (pushes and pulls) are involved in flight.

  5. Machines like airplanes, helicopters and drones use engines and wings to fly.

  6. Animals like birds and insects use muscles and wings to fly.

Flight - big science ideas
Level 3

In addition to the ideas mentioned in the Levels 1 and 2, these ideas apply:

  1. The four main forces that affect flight are weight, lift, thrust and drag.

  2. These forces can be balanced or unbalanced.

  3. For machines to keep flying, an engine or similar must keep the wings moving through the air.

  4. For animals to keep flying, their wings must keep moving through the air.

NZC levels 1 and 2

Flight is a huge topic so it pays to remember what the curriculum has to say:

NOS Investigating in science emphasises the role of exploration, play, asking questions and discussing simple models.

NOS Communicating in science emphasises building language and understanding.

With younger students, keep it simple. Use exploration and play, with careful teacher questioning, to develop content vocabulary and to BEGIN to explore the physics of flight.

NZC level 3

Flight is an ideal way to identify and describe the effect of forces on the motion of objects.

NOS Investigating in science emphasises asking questions, finding evidence, exploring simple models and simple investigations.

NOS Communicating in science emphasises content vocabulary, symbols and conventions.

ARTICLE 

Investigating flight – introduction

This is a good overview of some of the Hub's flight resources. Check out the links within the text to help decide which aspects of flight you might like to cover. For levels 1 and 2, exploring what flies and defining what flight is, might be sufficient.

ARTICLE 

Investigating rockets – introduction

Rockets is another context for teaching the principles of flight. Check out the links within the text to help you decide what aspects of flight you might like to cover.

The basics of balanced and unbalanced forces, thrust, mass and aerodynamics are good places to start for level 3 and above.

ARTICLE 

Principles of flight

The two images on this page are useful for exploring the the science capability Interpret representations.

Click on the "i" on each image to enlarge it on an IWB or screen for discussion.

Image: Taking wings... Expand note

ARTICLE 

How birds fly

Physical features

Become familiar with some of the physical features of birds. Use images of birds to discuss these features and how the features might help or hinder a bird for flight.... Expand note

ARTICLE 

Toroa – our giants of the skies

Click to add note

ACTIVITY 

What flies?

This is a good introductory activity to determine what students already know about flight vocabulary and science concepts. Or use it later for formative or summative assessment purposes.

Using the activity cards to categorise things that fly supports the science capability Use evidence. Students, like scientists, need to use ... Expand note

ACTIVITY 

Observing wings for flight

Click to add note

ARTICLE 

A progression of flight – timeline

Use the images in this timeline to view and discuss changes brought about by advances in science and technology.

These discussions support several aspects of the nature of science.

  • how science knowledge changes over time (tentative nature of science)... Expand note

ACTIVITY 

Kites

This is a practical, hands-on activity for exploring the forces of flight, using content vocabulary and using science to inform technological practice.

The Word download document has links to the various flight science concepts.

The activity works best if there is parent (or additional) help available for younger students when making the simple sled kite. The design is ... Expand note

ACTIVITY 

Water bottle rockets

This activity explores the variables that affect the distance and height of a bottle rocket's flight.

The activity supports multiple science capabilities:

  • Gather and interpret data (observe launches and infer why they were successful or not)... Expand note
ACTIVITY 

Aerofoils and paper planes

This is a simple activity that illustrates wing lift. Students represent air molecules and move around the room. Then they build an aerofoil using paper, straws, cotton thread and a hair dryer. Very visual.

The second part of the activity puts a lot of this into practice by experimenting with paper planes.... Expand note

ARTICLE 

Flight mythology

Cross-curricular opportunities

Flight mythology lends itself to literacy and the arts.

Students can retell the stories in this article - with annotations depicting the science fact and fiction - or they can create their own stories and ... Expand note

Useful links

The Building Science Concept series have 2 titles of interest:

Flight: Control in the air: https://scienceonline.tki.org.nz/Teaching-resources/Building-Science-Concepts/Titles-and-concept-overviews/Flight-Control-in-the-Air

Parachutes: Floating and falling in the air: https://scienceonline.tki.org.nz/Teaching-resources/Building-Science-Concepts/Titles-and-concept-overviews/Parachutes-Floating-and-Falling-in-Air

Educators in New Zealand schools can use Journal Surf to find literacy resources to support the topic flight. https://journalsurf.co.nz/search

Email Us

See our newsletters here.