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<\/p>\nA much better word for it would really be hover. But come on, what kid isn’t gonna\u00a0get excited about building a hovercraft.<\/p>\n
This is a hovercraft that NASA built. Ours won’t\u00a0be as big or complicated, but they run on the same principles<\/p>\n
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The key to the hovering movement is the reduction of friction on the bottom of the craft. This reduction of friction comes from a very thin layer of air that keeps the craft barely floating. Essentially, it’s air hockey.<\/p>\n
The first part of this activity is building the hovercrafts themselves. Essentially, a water bottle nozzle is affixed to the hole in the center of a CD disk with hot\u00a0glue, Then an inflated balloon is stretched over the other side of the nozzle. As the balloon deflates, it releases air through the nozzle and hovers, a simple push gets it shooting across the room<\/p>\n
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Building a hovercraft can be all fun and games, but what makes it a STEM activity is the science behind it. Do your students understand what’s going on? Why does it float? What are the forces acting on the system?\u00a0Have students draw a force diagram. This should help them visualize how they can make improvements to their hovercraft.<\/p>\n
Once the hovercrafts have been assembled, and the students have explored their capability, its time for real scientific experimentation. In the explore phase, students should innovate! How do you make the hovercraft travel faster, further? Are there improvements to be made to the balloon, the nozzle? Would a different material work better as the base? Is there some sort of propulsion system that would make it go on its own? This is where the students get to be creative and perfect their hovercrafts (either individually or in groups)<\/p>\n
Make it into a competition. Decide what parameters to set and let the students know what kind of test you are going to put their crafts to. Maybe the goal is distance, or speed, or longest continual hover. Carry out the competition, award the winner, and have the students evaluate themselves on their performance.<\/p>\n
Have the students draw a force diagram of their hovercraft. They will need to label the forces involved and explain how they either maximized or minimized those forces to achieve a goal.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/twitter.com\/MrPeterMurray\/status\/1056748268288380928<\/p>\n
Credit to the Jet Propulsion Lab at NASA for designing this activity.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/edu\/teach\/activity\/hovering-on-a-cushion-of-air\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"