Page 10 - MOVING THROUGH AIR

Science Y2 – Parent Guide
INVESTIGATING AIR RESISTANCE
Truth to Teach (Source)

God wants us to trust Him, in the same way as a parachutist trusts his parachute as he steps
out of a plane.

Learning for Life (Fulfilment)

For the children to appreciate how God has enabled people to understand principles of air
resistance and to discover a way of using air resistance to save lives.

For the children to be encouraged to open up and to depend on God to hold them and to lead
them. (Ephesians 5:18)

Way to Work (Means)

1. Remind the children how air can move things, carrying them along in its flow, especially
on a windy day; how hot air can lift things in its flow too.
When we are moving with the Holy Spirit, and we are trusting Him to help us, it is a good
place to be. It is ‘easy’.

2. Explain that today the class is going to investigate things falling through the air and
learn how God has helped people discover a way of using air to save lives.

Experiment 1: Dropping a flat piece of paper and a crumpled piece of paper from a
height and observing which lands first.

• Predict what will happen.
• Observe. Repeat the experiment.
• Interpret results. [Air got trapped under the sheet of paper and pushed
• against it, so slowing it down. Much less air got trapped under the ball of
• paper, so it fell quicker.]
• Does this piece of paper floating gently down through the air remind you of
anything? Can you think of a situation, in which it would be good for something to
fall slowly through the air, rather than quickly?

Experiment 2: Dropping a peg (dolly-type) and a peg attached to a parachute from a
height, observing which lands first.

• Predict.
• Conduct the experiment. Repeat.
• Discuss results.
[As the parachute fell it filled up with air and this trapped air slowed the peg man’s
fall. He landed safely.]
• Ask: could we make the peg-man come down even more slowly?
[Use a larger parachute.]

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