Mission Defining Questions

Overall Problem: Are there active lava flows on the Kilauea volcano?

Relationship of problem in this lesson to overall problem: Students develop a list of questions they need answered in order to develop a plan for investigating the Kilauea volcano using aircraft. Problems queried in this lesson include why do airplanes fly, what affects their flight,  why are aircraft designed differently, what are the characteristics of the available aircraft for this mission, and what questions need to be answered before we can select the best aircraft for this mission?

Estimated Time Required: to be determined

Student Outcomes/Objectives:

• Describe how various conditions, e.g., lift, weight, drag, thrust, affect flight.
• Identify the most important questions that need to be answered to plan an aeronautics remote sensing mission.

Prerequisite skills or knowledge:

• basic internet skills
• basic reading skills
• summarizing information in tables
• using information for comparisons 

Teacher Preparation:

• Secure Internet computers and projection equipment
• Bookmark websites for initial presentation and discussion of different types of aircraft
• Bookmark student websites on student machine (if not available, print and copy student collect data website)
• Paper airplane material: Paper 8.5"x11," string, fan or hair dryer, 1 foot diameter needlepoint hoop, small stones or weights, tape, marker.

Student Reflection and Assessment: Reflection   |  Assessment

Education Standards supported by this Lesson:

National Science Education Standards | Project 2061 Benchmarks

National Standards for School Mathematics | National Technology Standards | National Geography Standards

Extension Ideas to support National Education Standards for this Lesson:

Math | Technology | Geography

Teacher Activities

Student Activities

Orient students to the four forces of flight by participating in paper airplane science activities. Prompt their thinking about the forces of flight, various conditions affecting flight, and the design of aircraft to support flight missions.

Paper Airplane Science

Procedure

1. Hang a 1-foot diameter needlepoint hoop from the ceiling in your classroom. Allow the ability to raise or lower it quickly
2. Separate the students into groups of two or three and have them construct a paper airplane
3. Each group should be a given a turn to attempt to throw their paper airplane in order to get it to go through the hoop
4. It is important for you to require students to carefully observe all of the flights and begin to consider the factors that would need to be addressed to assure a successful flight
5. As each group takes its turn, begin to change factors. You will be modeling various factors which real aviators and aeronautics scientists must consider.

Suggestions for variations

1. Make one group stand farther back (models fight duration)
2. Tape a stone on one group’s plane (models weight vs. Lift)
3. Blow a fan near hoop (models weather)
4. Raise and lower hoop (models altitude)
5. Require one group to propel their plane with a rubber band (models thrust)

Hands-on activity: Bernoulli’s Principle

What makes airplanes fly ... perhaps the wings help?

Optional: instead of or to support the activity above

• Draw (using masking tape) a large air foil (6 to 8 ft long 2 to 3 feet wide at the curve) on the floor.
• Ask for 8 students to volunteer.
• Group students into 4 pairs and have then stand at the front (wide) side of the airfoil.
• Explain that they are air molecules and that air molecules like to stay together.
• When you give the word they should begin to walk along the edge of the airfoil, one of the pair on the curve and the other on the straight edge, going at the same rate around the air foil.
• Each group should follow one or two steps behind.
• When the first group gets to the end of the air foil (thin side) stop the groups and have the class make observations.
• They should note that the molecules on the curved end are farther apart from each other than the molecules on the straight side … this demonstrates that there is more pressure under the wing, thus causing lift. See Bernoulli's principle.

Ball and Funnel challenge: What makes the ball rise? (optional)

Review activities emphasizing the four forces of flight and relationship to aircraft features and flying missions.

Ask Why do airplanes fly?

Ask How do airplanes fly?

Ask What factors can affect flight?

Remind students to complete the reflection page for this lesson in their journals.

Teacher references for Paper Airplane Science: 

Airplane templates:

• Aeronautics - An Educator's Guide pp. (download the .pdf file) and follow the instructions and template on pp. 61-62.
• Or, order a copy of the "Tools of the Trade" poster from your nearest NASA Educators Resource Center, use template on the back for building airplanes.

Four forces of flight:

• Explanation and animation 1
• Explanation and animations 2

Principles of Aeronautics:

• Questions and Answers: "What is Aeronautics?"
• Additional Sample Experiments in Aerodynamics
• K-8 Principles of Aeronautics

Optional or replacement activity for paper airplane science:

• Rotor Motor (download the .pdf file for Aeronautics - An Educator's Guide) and follow the instructions on pp. 72-78)

Remote sensing - very basic:

• Quick overview of remote sensing by aircraft for teacher
• Remote sensing overview for kids

Teacher references for Bernoulli's Principle: 

• Forces of flight and Bernoulli's principle

Participate in Hands-on activity:

• Build and  fly paper airplanes
• Record observations of the flight of paper airplanes under various conditions

Students participate in activities.

Sample responses should include:

• Four forces: lift, drag, thrust, and weight.
• Bernoulli's Principle, which explains how air pressure produces lift: The air above a wing tends to move faster than the air below it. According to Bernoulli's Principle, slower air has higher pressure than faster air. That means that the air pressure pushing up on the bottom of the wing is greater than the pressure pushing down, so the wing goes up.
• Weight of payload, weather, altitude, flight duration, 4-forces

Students draft responses on the reflection page for this lesson in their journals.

Aeronautics scientists begin their work by generating "mission defining questions." The objective of this part of the lesson is to involve students in this process by asking them: "what factors or flight conditions may affect planning a flight mission to determine if the volcano has active lava flows?"

Ask students:

• What do you need to know about flying to choose an aircraft for this mission to explore volcanoes? Why?
• What type of questions would you ask to determine the best aircraft to investigate the volcano problem?

Sample responses should include:

• Four forces of flight
• Altitude
• Payload
• Weather
• Flight duration

Encourage students to explore different types of research aircraft and propose which would be most suitable for the overall mission on the volcano. Students will create or complete a table that shows important features of aircraft.

Note:  The purpose of this activity is to get the kids thinking about what they need to know and how to test their initial hypothesis of which aircraft is the best choice to fly this mission. There are multiple answers to these activities, based on the student's perspective of what questions are important.

Remind students that this activity is about "Mission Defining Questions" and that their role is to think about the kinds of aircraft features that are necessary for selecting the aircraft they need to conduct this mission.

Break students into small groups

Provide students with NASA research aircraft website or lithographs

• SR-71 | facts |
• ER-2   | facts |  mission information (optional)
• DC-8  | facts |  mission information (optional)
• King-Air | facts |
• Pathfinder |  facts   | mission information (optional)

Provide students with information on the remote sensing instrument being used for this mission.

Direct students to:

• Review the provided information and develop a list of factors, e.g., payload, flight altitude, weather, etc., they need to consider to select the most appropriate aircraft for this mission, given the information on the remote sensing instrument.

Periodically prompt students with the following questions:

• How are these aircraft different from each other?
• How do you think aeronautic scientists think about the features of the aircraft when selecting an aircraft for a specific mission?
• What does the information on the remote sensing instruments tell you about the type of aircraft you will need to select?

Halfway through the activity ...

Distribute "Mission Defining Questions Worksheet" to prompt student's thinking about the types of questions needed to be asked. Students should add their additional questions to the bottom on the list.

• Students work in groups to search websites and develop table structure to record information about each type of aircraft. They will use this table for comparison and decision making throughout the remainder of the unit.

• Students build a table and begin to enter information based on their review of the different aircraft. (There is not one correct table showing the features of aircraft and types of flight missions. The table that students develop depends on what the features of the aircraft each group think are important) The sample solution table contains the minimum amount of information categories required to solve the aircraft choice problem.

 Sample factors may include:

• aircraft features
• maximum altitude
• maximum speed
• weather conditions for flight

(see Aircraft Properties Table Sample Solution -- for teacher ... this activity will only focus on creating the aircraft properties part of the matrix ... remaining components will be completed in future lesson.)

Each group presents their Mission Defining Questions, aircraft features matrix, and results of their exploration of the different aircraft.

Debrief activity as a class.

Ask students:

• Which questions on this worksheet are the most important to consider when you select an aircraft for this mission? Why?
• Which questions are not important? Why ?
• At this point, which aircraft (list all possibilities) are most suitable for this mission? (investigating the volcano?)  Why?
• What additional information do you need to narrow your choices?

Summarize presentations and discussions.

Discuss next steps… selecting the best aircraft for this mission using the questions you just developed.

Remind students to complete the reflection page for this lesson in their journals.

Present responses to activity and participate in summarizing discussion.

Sample student responses may include:

• See teacher solution to Mission Defining Questions worksheet.

• All of these aircraft would be suitable, except maybe the SR-71 which does not usually fly remote sensing missions, it is used mostly for flight testing research. See "Aircraft Properties Table Sample Solution -- for teacher."
• Duration of mission, weather, airport information, etc.

Students complete the reflection page for this lesson in their journals.

• Prompt students during group activities to think about why NASA Airborne scientists ask these questions before selecting aircraft for a mission.
• Prompt students to think about the overall problem as they review the given information and develop the matrix that will be used to select the best aircraft.

Remind students to complete the reflection page for this lesson in their journals.

Assessment

• Review students list of questions to make sure that they are comparable to the sample teacher responses.

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Ideas for Math lesson enhancements:

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Ideas for Geography lesson enhancements:

• to be determined

Related National Education Geography Standards Standard:

• to be determined

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Ideas for Technology lesson enhancements:

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Suggested Responses for the Mission Defining Questions Worksheet -- for teacher

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  Aircraft Properties Table Sample Solution -- for teacher

This matrix will be completed by students throughout the KaAMS aeronautics activities. The answers are provided in this version to support teachers with questions that may arise during any of the activities. Teachers may need to provide some of the data to students when lessons are either completed out of order or not completed in this unit. Information students should be identifying during this lesson is in blue text, depending on the resources used. You will need to provide students with information they could not locate in the resources provided at the end of their research.

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General Overview of Remote Sensing from Aircraft

What is remote sensing?

"Remote Sensing" is the observation of the Earth from distant vantage points, usually by/from satellites or aircraft. Cameras mounted on these platforms capture detailed pictures of the Earth that reveal features not apparent to the naked eye. Once captured, the images are passed on to analysts who interpret the data, extract information, and use it to answer questions. This information may be used to map forests, detect pollution, measure elevation, locate a diseased crop, and answer a variety of other questions.

There are many reasons why remote sensing is used to study the environmental and climatic problems of the Earth. As previously discussed, remote sensing can be used on either aircraft or satellites. This activity will focus on the use of airplanes to collect data from remote sensing.

Remote sensing from aircraft has three primary uses: monitoring, diagnosing and understanding. Monitoring involves collecting data over a period of time during which the conditions affecting the problem may change. This will give the scientists an idea of what may be causing the problem, which leads into the second use: diagnosis. The data collected can be analyzed to determine what is causing the problem. Once this is known, the data will be used further to understand the problem, which is the third primary use. Once scientists understand the problem, they can better treat it in the future.

There are many different kinds of remote sensors. They can range from simple cameras to sophisticated digital equipment that can sense different levels of heat, light and gases. They also have a wide range of sizes and weights, in addition to methods of data communication and storage. Some remote sensors work best at certain altitudes or below certain speeds. Others may be limited to the best weather possible, and some can see through even the worst clouds and rain. All of these factors must be considered when choosing the most appropriate sensor.

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