Photos and descriptions of Second Grade science outreach program on Motion, Energy, and Flight at Asa Packer Elementary School.
Motion, Energy, Flight, and Roller Coasters Asa Packer Elementary
School, Academic Year 2013-2014
Grade 2
In this program, we learned about motion and energy by exploring the worlds of aviation and roller coasters.
We discovered that there are four kinds of forces on an airplane in flight: gravity, lift, thrust, and drag. It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. Gravity is the force due to the Earth that pulls everything down. We also call it weight. Of course, we all knew that already. Lift is the force that keeps an airplane from falling down when it is in flight. This force is caused by the air passing under and over the wing. Thrust is the force produced by the engine that pulls the airplane forward. And drag is the force that keeps you from going as fast as you want. It is like friction.
The controls in the airplane move certain parts of the wing surfaces so that the airplane can go up, down, left, and right. In fact, an airplane can turn around three directions, called pitch, roll, and yaw. Although we didn’t do much with yaw, we did learn that it’s controlled by the two pedals on the floor. To make the airplane turn left or right, we turn the steering wheel to the left or right (although it’s actually called a “yoke” in an airplane). Turning the steering wheel causes the plane to bank (tilt), and that’s how it turns. The steering wheel also moves in and out. If we pull back on the steering wheel, the houses get smaller, and if we push forward on the steering wheel, the houses get bigger. (OK… the airplane either goes up or down!)
One of us demonstrated the effects of gravity by jumping off of a chair. Gravity pulls everything down. Without lift, airplanes would fall just like we do.
Dr. DeLeo demonstrated the control of an airplane by showing us, with an airplane model, what happens as we move the steering wheel in and out and turn it left and right. Click the play button on the picture just to the left to see a VIDEO.
We watched a video of a real airplane in flight. It was flown by Dr. DeLeo's friend, Captain Joseph D'Angelo, a pilot for Continental Airlines. He flies one of their big jets. Captain D'Angelo took off from Queen City Airport in Allentown in a small airplane with four seats. He did a "touch and go" landing at Lehigh Valley International Airport (sometimes called LVI or ABE). We recognized the control tower! He then landed back at Queen City and parked the airplane. Photos taken out the front window as the plane was landing are shown below. We landed on runway number 6. It was exciting!
And now came the really fun part. Dr. DeLeo brought in a flight simulator program, a joystick (which we used instead of the steering wheel), and a video projector. It was like we were looking out from the cockpit of the airplane. Every one of us got to fly! We took off from Newark Airport, flew by the Statue of Liberty, under one of the New York City bridges, all around Manhattan Island, over Central Park, and then landed at LaGuardia Airport. Here are some pictures showing us flying the airplane.
Below are three VIDEOS of us flying around New York City. Click the play button on the photo on the left below to see us flying by the Statue of Liberty. The middle one shows us flying under a bridge. And the one on the right has us flying by the Empire State Building. Dr. DeLeo thought he saw a big ape on the top holding a girl, so he had us try to rescue her. Of course, real airplanes are not allowed to get this close to real buildings or houses.
Just to the right is a VIDEO of us landing the airplane at LaGuardia Airport. Click the play button on the picture.
After safely landing the airplane at LaGuardia Airport, we then moved on to the other part of the program: energy and roller coasters.
We learned that there are two important kinds of energy, especially when we are talking about roller coasters. They are called kinetic energy and potential energy. But these scary sounding words turned out to be not very scary at all. You see, kinetic energy is just the energy you have when you are moving. The faster I run, the more kinetic energy I have. Potential energy is just the energy of being high. The higher I am, the more potential energy I have. When you are on a roller coaster, the potential energy of being high is turned into the kinetic energy of going fast. This is called “conservation of energy,” when one kind of energy is turned into another. It’s sort of like being scared. When you’re on the high part of the roller coaster, you’re scared because you’re high – “help, I’m too high!!” When you get to the bottom, you’re scared because you are going so fast – “help, I’m going too fast!!” So, you’re scared at the top, and scared at the bottom, but they’re different kinds of scared.
Dr. DeLeo showed us a computer simulation of roller coasters. It was really funny because if the car was going too fast when it went over a hill, it left the tracks and went into the air. And, the computer program said “oops!"
Here are some photos of us building and testing our roller coasters.
Here is a VIDEO of us testing our roller coasters. Click the play button on the photo.
At the end of the program, Dr. DeLeo gave us two gifts to keep. He gave us each a balsa model glider, and something called a “space pet” (or a “celt”).
If you spin the space pet one way, it spins just fine. But if you spin it the other way, it stops spinning, rocks back and forth briefly, and then spins the other way. Also, if you rock it, the rocking motion quickly turns into spinning motion. Because of the way it is shaped, it turns one type of motion into another. It says “Lehigh University” on it – that’s where Dr. DeLeo teaches. And, it can even be used as a magnifier! What a great day!!
I hope you have enjoyed this web presentation as much as we enjoyed sharing the actual learning experience with your son or daughter. Although we have endeavored to exclude photographs where permission has been denied, it is possible for errors to occur. If you would like us to remove a photograph of your son or daughter for any reason, please send me an e-mail message at lgd0@lehigh.edu or call me at 610-758-3413, and we will remove it promptly. Please note that we will never associate a child's full or last name with a photograph except in circumstances where special permission was explicitly provided. Thank you. Gary DeLeo.
In this program, we learned about motion and energy by exploring the worlds of aviation and roller coasters.
We also call it weight. Of course, we all knew that already. Lift is the force that keeps an airplane from falling down when it is in flight. This force is caused by the air passing under and over the wing. Thrust is the force produced by the engine that pulls the airplane forward. And drag is the force that keeps you from going as fast as you want. It is like friction.
and yaw. Although we didn’t do much with yaw, we did learn that it’s controlled by the two pedals on the floor. To make the airplane turn left or right, we turn the steering wheel to the left or right (although it’s actually called a “yoke” in an airplane). Turning the steering wheel causes the plane to bank (tilt), and that’s how it turns. The steering wheel also moves in and out. If we pull back on the steering wheel, the houses get smaller, and if we push forward on the steering wheel, the houses get bigger. (OK… the airplane either goes up or down!) 
