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Motion, Energy, Flight, and Roller Coasters
Farmersville Elementary
School, Academic Year 2010-2011
Grade 2 |
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 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!) |
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| Dr. DeLeo demonstrated the controls 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. |
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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 around Manhattan Island, over Central Park, by the Statue of Liberty, under one of the New York City bridges, and then landed at LaGuardia Airport. Here are some pictures showing us flying the airplane.
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| The VIDEO on the far left shows scenes of us flying by the Statue of Liberty. The VIDEO just to the left shows scenes of us flying under some of the New York City bridges. Click the play buttons on the photos to view the videos. |
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Just to the right is a VIDEO of us flying by the Empire State Building. The VIDEO on the far-right shows of one of us landing the airplane at LaGuardia Airport! Click the play buttons on the photos to view the videos.
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After safely landing the airplane at LaGuardia Airport, we then moved on to the other part of the program: energy and roller coasters. |
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 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. |
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| Here are some photos of us building and testing our roller coasters. We were helped by our teachers and Lehigh University graduate students. |
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| Here are two VIDEOS of us testing our roller coasters. Click the play buttons on the photos. |
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At the end of the program, Dr. DeLeo gave us something called a “space pet” (or a “celt”). If you spin it 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!
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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. |
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