Paper Airplane Lab
This lab is set-up to combine your creative skills, while allowing you to be able to
modify your technology and witness whether or not these modifications improve
performance results or not. You must complete all aspects of the lab, and in the end write
up a lab report using the following criteria:
1. Introduction: Why did we do the lab?
2. Problem: What were we trying to determine?
3. Hypothesis: What do you think is going to happen? How do you think the addition of
paper clips to the airplane will affect its flight distance? Does the placement of the clips
matter?
- This must be created before the experiment is completed.
- Style it similarly to: If paper clips are added to the (location) of the paper airplane,
then _________________ .
4. Predictions: What do you believe will be observed? Will more paperclips on the plane
make it fly better or worse? Will the plane fly a longer distance if paper clips are only
placed on the front of the plane? Think of these styles of questions. Must be created before
the experiment is completed.
5. Materials: What supplies were used during lab? Write in a list format.
6. Procedure: How are we going to perform the experiment? This is a step by step
explanation of what you did to perform the experiment.
- What do we need to do? What needs to be kept constant? What is our control? What is
our independent variable going to be? Where are we going to perform the experiment?
7. Observations: Did the plane fly far? Did it nose-dive when paper clips were added? Did
it fly crooked? Record the observations of each trial while completing the lab.
8. Results: Data tables and graphs.
Here is where you record the numbers and calculations of what was observed. The time of
flight, the distance the plane travelled, etc. Include all necessary labels on graphs and
tables.
9. Conclusion: Explain your results in this section. What did you conclude about the
amount of paper clips and flight time of the paper airplane? Include any possible mistakes
that could have been made (possible sources of error). Was your hypothesis supported
(why or why not)? Is there anything you could have done differently?
The Procedure:
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In groups of two, students will create a paper airplane and test whether the addition
of paperclips will improve or weaken the flight of the plane.
They will create their hypothesis and predictions before the start of the lab.
Then they will collect the materials (paper, colour pencils, paper clips, meter stick,
etc) and build and decorate their airplane to make it uniquely their own.
The class will then head to a designated area where they will fly their airplanes.
Each team will have 1 member line up at the "departure" line, and throw their
airplane. When one member throws the plane, the other is in charge of timing the
flight (record of time will start when team member A releases the plane, and stops
when plane "lands" on the ground). Both members will observe the flight of the
plane.
Once all planes have landed, teams will then measure the distance the plane flew
from the departure line.
The flights will be completed in 4 sections. Each section will have a modification,
and 3 test flights will be done with each modification.
 First trial: Fly the plane 3 times (trials) with no adaptations
 Second trial: Fly the plane with a single paper clip somewhere on the plane,
e.g. on the back of the plane (complete 3 trials with paperclip in same spot)
 Third trial: Fly the plane with the single paper clip on a new spot on the
plane, e.g. if it was on the back for the second trial, move it to the front
(complete 3 trails this way)
 Fourth trial: Add more paperclips for comparison. (Complete 3 trails with
same amount of clips in same spots)
Once all flights are recorded, the class will return to the classroom and work on the
lab report. Students will complete the calculations (average velocity of each flight),
remark on observations, discuss possible sources of error, and create graphs based
on their data.
Hypothesis and prediction: A copy is due to me on Monday, December 15th
This must match the hypothesis and prediction in your lab report!
We will fly the airplanes on December 16th
Your lab report will be due by the end of the day Friday, December 19th.
You can work on this in class on the 19th as well.
**Do NOT use pronouns in your lab report! Ie, do not say, “I think that”,
“We saw that”. Instead, use phrases such as “It is believed that”, “It was
observed that”, “Therefore, it can be concluded that”**
Data Section
Number of paper
clips (indicate
position)
Trial 1
Trial 1A
Trial 1B
Trial 1C
Trial 2
Trial 2A
Trial 2B
Trial 2C
Trial 3
Trial 3A
Trial 3B
Trial 3C
Trial 4
Trial 4A
Trial 4B
Trial 4C
Calculation area:
Observations:
Length of flight
(Time)
Distance Travelled