Helicopter Lab/ Assessment
Name _________________________________
Activity One
Procedure
1. Cut out and fold the helicopter as directed.
2. Hold the helicopter high into the air and drop it. Watch the direction that the wings spin.
3. Now, fold the blades of your helicopter in the opposite direction. This is something that you purposefully did
to the helicopter.
Questions
1. Do all the helicopters fly/spin exactly the same way? ______________
2. Do all the helicopters spin the same direction when the wings are folded differently? _________________
3. When you folded the wings in the opposite direction, was this the independent variable or the dependent
variable? _______________________________________
4. How did the helicopter’s flying/spinning change when you folded the wings in the opposite direction?
_________________________________________________________________________
5. As related to Question #4, was this the independent variable or dependent variable?
_____________________________________
6. What were some of the things that stayed the same about your helicopter even though you folded the wings
in an opposite direction? _______________________________________________________________________
7. What do we call the things that stay the same when conducting an experiment?
________________________________________
Activity Two
Procedure
1. If paperclips are added one at a time to the body of the helicopter (increasing the mass) and then you drop
the helicopter, how do you think the increased mass will affect the way the helicopter flies/spins? (can be
different from your partner’s guess)
____________________________________________________________________________________
2. What do we call an educated guess that is made before the experiment is conducted?
_________________________________________
3. Write your educated guess in the scientific correct format, including the independent and dependent
variables.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Now, add one paperclip to the body of the helicopter (increasing the mass), hold it high into the air, drop it
and observe the results. Add another paperclip to body of the helicopter, repeat the drop and observe.
Questions
1. What happened to the flying/spinning of the helicopter as you increased the mass one paperclip at a time?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
2. Was your hypothesis supported? (okay if different from your partner’s) ____________
3. As you increased the paperclips one at a time (increasing the mass), what part of the experiment were you
changing?_____________________________________________
4. What is the dependent variable in this experiment?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5. Compare the rate of the spin of the helicopter with paperclips to the rate of the spin of the helicopter
without paperclips. Which was the control in this experiment?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
6. Name at least 2 constants in this experiment.
____________________________________________________________________________________
7. Write a good conclusion using the correct scientific form. (reference your notes if necessary)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
8. We made qualitative observations during this lab. What quantitative data would you be able to collect that
would allow you to graph your results?
____________________________________________________________________________________