It Starts With a Question: How Do Birds Fly?

How do birds fly? That was the science question we set out to answer as we studied animals.   

In order to find out the answer, we went through the Scientific Process of asking questions, observing, experimenting, hypothesizing, more experimenting, and concluding--all things that kids so naturally do. 

We had all kinds of "I think" answers:

• wind
• air
• their feathers
• flapping wings
• the sun
• the Equator, no I mean the magnetic field

We then did some observations and "I wonder if..." experiments:

Each student was given a piece of paper and were told to make it fly. We knew that there was a way to make a paper airplane but no one knew how (and their teacher wouldn't show them!) There was great determination, experimentation, excitement and even some angst over trying to make it work. 

We read the book, Leonardo and the Flying Boy and discovered that we're not the only ones who believe in flight!

We came back the next day eager to get “back to the drawing board” and try new designs. And we had success!

We knew we could make paper fly but we still didn't quite get the why. So we did some experiments that showed the Bernoulli's Effect. And we were greatly surprised.

We wonder what will happen when we blow underneath a strip of paper:

Click here to see. 

We observe that it blows straight out. We wonder what will happen when we blow over the strip of paper? We hypothesize that it will go down. 

What?? We observe that it blows straight out again!

Click here to see. 

We wonder what will happen when we blow between two balloons? We all think the balloons will blow apart.

But no! We observe that the balloons come together every single time!

We try something new. What do we think will happen when we blow through a straw right next to a flame? We all think the flame will either be blown out or will move away from the stream of air.

But no! We observe that the flame moves toward the blowing air!

Why do we think this is happening?

This led to some great discussion and some great ideas. As we listened to each other and as we looked at an airplane wing and a bird's wing, we came pretty close to the correct answer. 

We then watched a video on how a bird flies and had a few more aha moments. 

Ask any Navigator what the Bernoulli's Effect is and you'll find out more!