Hoop Gliders

I came across these hoop gliders several years ago, but I revisited them with my children when we were participating in the Tech Challenge 2016, Taking Flight. And just like the Birds of PLAY, we made these gliders to prototype (we thought using the gliders in the shape of birds would be fun at the competition) and understand the mechanics of flight.

Before you start, throw a plain straw. Does it fly well? Not really. It’s because the straw doesn’t have wings. It has nothing to generate lift. But when you add hoops, they act as wings, generating lift. And depending on where you put the hoops, your hoop glider will generate more lift or less. You experiment with sizes and locations of the hoops and decide what works best for your hoop glider. 

 This is what we're making today. 

These are quite simple to make, and they are incredibly fun to throw and watch them fly. This is a great project you can do with your children/students inexpensively. I hope you try this project and have a lot of fun.

List of Supplies:

·                     Straws (different lengths and diameters)

·                     Paper strips (copy paper, construction paper, cardstock, etc., whatever you have handy)

·                     Scissors

·                     Adhesive tape

Cut the paper in 1/2" or 3/4" strips. You can experiment with other widths, but these are the widths that seemed to work best. I also have three different sizes of straws. For my convenience, I made my hoop gliders with the wider, pearl drink straws. But I had students make hoop gliders with regular straws, and they did well with the smaller diameters, too. So, it really doesn't matter too much. Again, if you have different sizes available, experiment.

These paper strips are 3/4" wide. I like this width for no other reason than that it's the width of scotch tape. So, that's the width I use, but I've seen other project instructions online with 1/2" width instructions. Tape the ends of the strips together and make circles. You can experiment with lengths, but I tend to use 3", 6", 9" and 12" strips. I don't know why. I think it's the proportions that matter, not the actual lengths.

You can put as many or as few hoops as you want. But the minimum number is 2.

Have fun with where you put the hoops. Go crazy and fail spectacularly!

As you see, the left hoop gliders hoops are not aligned. The hoop in the back is attached in the middle, but the hoop in the front is attached to the right handside. Play with where you attach the hoops - in the middle, left side, right side, etc.

Just want to show you the different sizes of the hoops I attached. Again, the goal of these projects is to have fun.

I made 4 hoop gliders this morning. but when I conducted this project in class, some students have made as many as 10+ gliders. So, make a lot and have fun.

How to throw a hoop glider. Gently throw it forward.

 

This one flew pretty straight and far.

This one flew the farthest, almost toward the fence & the rose bushes.

This one was interesting to look at slow-mo, because the largest loop would swing back and forth between left and right. But it didn't fly far.

This one was all over the place, but interesting to watch.

It's a perfect day to fly gliders! Have fun!

Birds of PLAY

This was in the Make magazine a couple of years ago, and when we were participating in the Tech Challenge 2016, Taking Flight, we made these gliders to prototype (we thought using the gliders in the shape of birds would be fun at the competition) and understand the mechanics of flight.

I don’t quite remember what the instructions were except that we drew gliders in the shape of birds on a foam plate and experimented with different combination of shapes in gliders and tails.

This is a great project you can do with your children/students inexpensively. I hope you try this project and have a lot of fun.

List of Supplies:

• Foam plates
• Paper clips
• Scissors
• Adhesive tape (optional)
• Pens or Pencils

Build Instructions:

There is no perfect shape to start off. Experiment with the size and width of wings to find your best design.

As you can see, I have four different shapes and five different tails. The gliders are identified with letters in the back, just like the tails are identified with numbers.

The gliders are "lettered" to find the best combination of shapes and tails.

Gliders are assembled. Ready for flight testing.

I put aielerons on this right, bottom glider to see if they made any difference, but they didn't. In fact, it didn't fly as well as the one above it (which is basically the same glider design except for the aielerons)

Again, with 4 different shapes and 5 different tails, you can have a lot of fun flying them and figuring out which combination works the best. 

In these videos below, I've recorded two different combinations which flew the best. Enjoy & have fun!

Video 1

Glider B, Tail 2 combination

Video 2

Glider D, Tail 5 combination

Find your own best combination and have fun with Birds of PLAY!

Hint: DON'T try to throw these. Just hold them by the tail area (without skewing the tail position), and let go gently.

Tech Challenge 2016 Recap 2

Here are some of the designs a fourth-grader team designed and built over the course of the Tech Challenge 2016.

A team member got this glider idea from the Maker magazine. It was a good start to learn about gliders and center of gravity.

Comparing the flight of our bird gliders to the store-bought balsa wood gliders.

We got the idea from one of the library books a team member borrowed from the library. This glider is made out of  foam plates.

The same design different material. Foam gliders flew better than the paper plate gliders.

The goal for our team is to research (online, library, books, magazines, etc.) and learn about the subject matter as much as possible. We also watch a lot of youtube videos, too. 

Try some of these with your kids today.

Tech Challenge 2016 Recap 1

I've been an advisor to a tech challenge team for four years, and this was the most difficult challenge to date. 

The 2016 challenge: Build a glider to deliver supplies to a remote location!
This year, you tell the story! What is your glider carrying? Where are you going? Why?
New award for 2016: Top Tech Challenge story! 
Who: Students in Grades 4-12
What: A team engineering design challenge
When: Event Days are Saturday, April 23 (Grades 4-6) and Sunday, April 24 (Grades 9-12 and Grades 7-8)
Why: To develop creative solutions to a real-world problem

A glider, which weighs less than a pound, must carry payloads (ping pong balls), gain 6 inches of lift in 6 feet, make a turn around a storm column, and deliver payloads to a "remote" location 26 feet away.

Not only did teams have to build their gliders, but they must incorporate a launcher, which will have a trigger mechanism. Then it's got to gain lift and turn. What a challenge for a fourth-grade team.

Yes, since last year, the Tech Challenge has been opened to fourth graders, and it was a welcome change for those kids who were eager to form their own teams after watching their older sibling's teams compete for years.

A 4th-grade team was talking with the judges at a test trial at the Tech Museum. You can clearly see the launch platform, the mountains, and the storm column that the glider must clear before landing on the target (26 feet away) successfully.

The glider must be launched at 0 degrees launch angle and have a trigger.

I think elementary students, as young as Kindergarten students, can get a lot out of this program, but I think the fourth-grade cut-off is a logical one, especially with the Engineering Design Journal requirement.

I didn't have the time to blog about this great program while it was in progress. Next year, I'm going to put forth extra effort to blog about this AWESOME program in more timely manner.

Tech Challenge Update - 10/24/15

It's that time of the year, again. The start of another Tech Challenge at the Tech Museum of San Jose.

This year's challenge is... (from the website)
http://www.thetech.org/tech-challenge-presented-emc

The 2016 challenge: Build a glider to deliver supplies to a remote location!
This year, you tell the story! What is your glider carrying? Where are you going? Why?
New award for 2016: Top Tech Challenge story! 
Who: Students in Grades 4-12
What: A team engineering design challenge
When: Event Days are Saturday, April 23 (Grades 4-6) and Sunday, April 24 (Grades 9-12 and Grades 7-8)
Why: To develop creative solutions to a real-world problem

Please check out the challenge and join in on the fun.

I think this is one of the best STEM programs out there, and kids learn so much from the process. Not about STEM, but about very important life lessons such as perseverance, teamwork, problem-solving, leadership, and dealing with multiple, repeated failure.

Sure, it seems like a lot of time commitment, but our teams have spent between 36 - 57 hours (that's from October to April) and attended 3 - 5 test trials in the last three years.

But how much time you spend with your team depends on your team's schedule and availability. I've known teams that attend every test trial each year, and other teams that barely attend one. There is no correct formula to experience this wonderful learning process.

Have a great day.