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Let's Go Fly a Kite!
Science and Children
October 2002, p. 20-24
Jacqueline Leonard

 

What design will this student make?

Adults and children of all ages and cultures have either seen a kite or have flown one. Why not use this common pastime to teach some of the simple laws of aerodynamics?

I decided to use kites in a Saturday program geared toward urban children of color in Philadelphia. Making kites and then flying them can motivate children—especially urban children—to learn in ways conducive to their learning styles. In addition, the materials to build kites are easy to find and inexpensive, which helped make the following program a huge success.

Our Saturday Science Program

Based on previous work I had done with children in south Philadelphia related to photography (Leonard and Guha, in press), I believed that children in north Philadelphia would be eager to attend a science program on Saturdays if the activities were interesting and related to their world.

I met with the principal and community liaison at Bethune Elementary School—one of the schools in the targeted area—in January 2002 to help plan a three-month program on Saturdays that would reinforce needed skills and concepts in reading, mathematics, and science.

The school received funds from the School District of Philadelphia to run a program in reading and mathematics at the school; I received funds from Urban Ministries (Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, United Methodist Church (UMC)) and the Space Telescope Science Institute to operate a science program concurrently at Tioga UMC only two blocks away. The two programs functioned independently, so children chose which program they wanted to attend.

The instructors for the science program at the church were preservice teachers that I recruited from my mathematics methods course at Temple University. They were paid $10 an hour to carry out a set of lesson plans on weather—developed by Ron Yaros, a meteorologist in St. Louis, Missouri—and on kites developed by the Australian Kite Association.

A total of 35 children enrolled in the science program. However, our average attendance was 20 students on any given Saturday. One group contained children ages four to seven; a second group, our largest group, contained children ages eight to ten; and the third group contained children ages eleven to thirteen. Two teacher interns were assigned to work with each group, and church staff were also present as volunteers.

The weather lessons were taught from February to mid-March, and the kite lessons were taught from mid-March to the end of April. In the weather unit, children learned about clouds, precipitation, wind, storms, temperature, and humidity through traditional instruction and hands-on experiments. The program began with instruction on weather because wind is very important in kite flying. Students learned how good weather and a blustery wind are required for successful kite flying and that stormy weather is dangerous.

All About Kites

For the kite unit, the preservice teachers first engaged the children by reviewing the history of kites. The children learned that kites were first made in China and that different kinds of kites were used for different purposes. Kite flying also helped develop other types of flight. To relate kite flying and flight to these urban youth, teachers related the story of Bessie Coleman, an African American woman who flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Children also watched a video about the Tuskegee Airmen and learned how these courageous black men made a valuable contribution during wartime. And to think it all started with kites!

The program also included a field trip to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, where students saw an exhibit on Benjamin Franklin’s experiment with a kite and a key, which revealed lightning as a source of electricity. Here the students could connect what they learned in the program with real-world phenomena.

Back in the classroom, students learned about three kinds of kites by looking at pictures and information the preservice teachers downloaded off the Internet (for the web address see Internet at the end of the article):

• The traditional diamond kite is a quadrilateral (a polygon with four sides) that is shaped like a diamond. It has two spars (sticks) that cross in the back for support, and a loop (bridle) is made around the intersection of the spars for the string. The tail is at the bottom.

• The sled is shaped like a hexagon (polygon with six sides). The two spars do not intersect but lay parallel, supporting the kite from top to bottom on each side. A string is tied to each wingtip on the left and right side, and the two lines are joined at the center of the kite for smooth sailing.

• The Indian fighting kite is shaped like an arrowhead. This kite can move all over the sky. It has one spar down the center and another spar near the top that bends into an arc to accommodate the curves. The string is secured around the vertical spar through one hole near the top and another near the bottom.

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How Does a Kite Fly?

Next, students learned about how kites fly. All of the children knew what a kite was, but many had never flown one. They shared the misconception that kites can stand still and fly on their own. Students learned about the following concepts through classroom discussion and worksheets:

• Objects move in a certain direction because there is a force on them in that direction. To make a kite move forward, tie a string on it and run across a field towing the kite. That forward force is called thrust. Birds and some airplanes use a lot of energy to get the air around them to provide thrust—but for kites it is easy because you can simply provide thrust through the string.

• To provide lift, the force pushing the kite up, the air around the kite must provide the force. The string tied to the kite provides a small force down, which needs to be overcome with the upward force of the air. The shape of the kite and the angle it is held is very important in obtaining lift. The parafoil kite, which has no sticks or rigid braces, has the greatest amount of lift known to date. Successful kites usually have a curved shape and are constructed so that they do not spin around or tumble.

• Gravity is the force that pulls objects toward the center of the Earth. The heavier an object is, the harder it is for the object to fly. Because of gravity, it takes more force to lift heavier objects into the air. (The children were able to see the difference for themselves when they flew paper kites and kites made of cloth.) This is why kites are made from lightweight materials such as plastic or tyvek, the cloth from which sails are made.

• Drag is the friction that occurs when air hits the kite’s fabric and sticks. Drag can be minimized by a kite’s smooth, gentle surface. Additional drag is created by the kite’s tail, which causes the kite to fly straighter. Not having a long enough tail will cause the kite to spin around, and too much tail will keep it from flying because of the extra weight.

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Making a Kite

The children began making the kites about halfway through the unit. Teachers used the kite-making patterns provided by the Australian Kite Association (www.aka.org.au/kites_in_the_classroom/plans.htm). Even though students could choose which type of kite to make, everyone chose the traditional diamond kite because they were most familiar with this kind of kite.

I was surprised that the children did not want to experiment with the other kinds of kites, and for future programs I will most likely demonstrate how to fly the sled and fighting kite in case future groups of students also choose to fly only the diamond kite. We used the following materials to make 20 kites:

• 2 balls of string;

• 20 white plastic trash bags;

• 20 rulers;

• 20 protractors;

• 8 boxes of permanent color markers;

• 20 1/4” dowels (available at hobby shops);

• 20 bridles (small plastic rings to loop string through, available at hobby shops);

• 3 bottles of glue;

• 2 rolls of 2” clear plastic tape; and

• 2 rolls of crepe paper for tails.

The children’s instructions were to lay the plastic bag out on a table and use a ruler to draw straight lines in the shape of a diamond using these measurements: cm; length = 90 cm. Children then used a protractor to check the angles. Many children had limited measuring experience; most did not know the difference between the metric and standard sides of the ruler. Before making kites, children practiced measuring the length of different objects around the classroom in centimeters. Teachers drew several types of angles on the chalkboard and had the students find the angle measurement to practice using protractors. The children understood that angles were related to how well the kite flew and that the diamond kite had four angles: The wingtip angles had to be 90°, and the top and bottom angles could vary as long as the total angles for the entire kite were 360°. (All angles in a quadrilateral must equal 360°.)

After checking the angles, the students drew designs on the kites with markers and cut out the kites. They taped the dowels to the back of the kites and punched holes for the string and bridle. The final step was adding a tail of crepe paper.

The older children worked independently, but teachers helped the younger children with cutting the kite, taping the dowels, and tying the string. It only took about an hour to design and make the kites—several students, however, made intricate designs that took several hours.

The teachers encouraged the children to use the following vocabulary as they built their kites:

• The spar is the name for the sticks that act as a skeleton for the kite (in this activity dowels were used for spars);

• The bridle is the line that connects the kite with the flying line (string);

• The sail is the cover of the kite; and

• The tail is the strip of paper, plastic, or fabric attached to the bottom of the kite.

After the students attached string and the crepe paper tail to the kites, everyone went outside to see how well the kites flew. Because the church was located in an urban area, selecting a safe place to fly our kites was not an easy task. We decided to go to the playground at the elementary school because of the open space. We were careful to ensure that each child had adequate space to fly their kites and that the children did not have too much loose string.

The children were excited and wanted to fly their kites all at once! Each adult took one or two children to a different part of the playground and held the kites up for the children, who then took off running with the kites.

We soon found that the smaller kites did not fly as well as the larger kites because the spars were not as secure, and the tails were not long enough. The smaller kites spun around and did not get very far off the ground. The location also presented some challenges at first. Because of limited space, some children ran into each other; others got their kite string tangled with others’ kites. Two children managed to get their line caught in the playground’s basketball goal, but they were successful in getting it loose without damage. Despite these mishaps, children were genuinely excited and intrigued by the kites. Expressions of “ooh” and “aah” were common. Several smaller children wanted to launch their kites over and over again. No one was ready to leave the playground after more than an hour of kite flying. Here the children were able to make direct connections with how important each part of the kite was to its ability to fly, and they had fun experimenting to determine what factors made a kite fly higher and longer. When the children’s kites did not fly to their satisfaction, they tried making adjustments to the spars, the string, or the tail. Some children even took their kites apart and put them back together again.

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A Kite Flying Contest

On the following Saturday, the students assembled colorful store-bought kites for a kite flying contest. At first we were going to use the kites the students had already made, but the children wanted to keep their kites and not damage them. Other children’s kites were already torn up after the first outing. To ensure that everyone had a quality kite to fly in the contest, we purchased kites from a local hobby shop that ranged in price from $5.99 to $10.99.

As they flew these kites, students noted that the kites they had made were more fragile than the store-bought kites. They observed that the material of the store-bought kites was similar to nylon and sailed better in the wind than plastic bags. Furthermore, the angles were accurate and the spars fit together more tightly. However, the student-made kites flew higher because the material was lighter.

The younger children used smaller kites with thin ribbon for a tail. These kites twirled around and did not fly straight. Adding more material to the tail enabled these kites to fly straighter. Older children used larger kites with an adequate tail. However, they discovered that adjusting the angle of the string on the bridle and bowing the spars so that the kite was concave made the kite fly higher.

The “competition” was actually a foot race: The adults held the kites to give the kites lift, and three or four students lined up evenly and took off running when one of the adults said, “Go!” They ran the entire length of the playground, did a U-turn, and ran back. Every child was rewarded with a small $1 prize for participating. However, the intrinsic reward was the kite flying experience itself. The children as well as the adults had fun flying the kites, which they were able to keep on the last day of the program.

Up, Up, and Away!

Kite flying provided a positive science and mathematics experience for everyone involved. While our class size was small, teachers in elementary schools with larger classes can easily do the same activities by enlisting the aid of parents and older siblings.

Urban minority students have little exposure to aerodynamics and space science. Making kites may encourage these students to investigate alternative career paths. Other lessons may be found in Mission Mathematics: Linking Aerospace and the NCTM Standards, K–6 (NCTM 1997). Given the opportunity, teachers and elementary students can “go fly a kite” and make connections to science and mathematics to last a lifetime.

Click here for more pics

Jacqueline Leonard is an assistant professor of mathematics education in the College of Education at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She also serves as project director of Space Links, which is funded by Urban Ministries and the Space Telescope Science Institute, to enhance urban children’s learning in space science and mathematics.

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Resources

Belsky, N.A. 1997. Building Kites: Flying High with Math. Columbus, Oh.: Dale Seymour.
Campbell, P.B. 1989. So what do we do with the poor, nonwhite female? Issues of gender, race, and social class in mathematics equity. Peabody Journal of Education, 66(2): 95–112.
Ladson-Billings, G. 1995. Making mathematics meaningful in multicultural contexts. In New Directions for Equity in Mathematics Education, eds. W. Secada, E. Fennema, and L.B. Adajian. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Leonard, J. 2000. Let’s talk about the weather: Lessons learned in facilitating mathematical discourse. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 5(8): 518–523.
Leonard, J., and S. Guha (In press). Creating cultural relevance in teaching and learning mathematics. Teaching Children Mathematics.
Moulton, R. Kites: A Practical Handbook for the Modern Kite Flyer. Philadelphia, Pa.: Trans-Atlantic.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). 1997. Mission Mathematics: Linking Aerospace and the NCTM Standards K–6. Reston, Va.: Author.
Yaros, R.A. 1991. Weatherschool: Teacher Resource Guide. Chesterfield, Mo.: Yaros Communications.

Internet

The following links are from The Australian Kite Association:
www.aka.org.au/kites_in_the_classroom/history.htm
www.aka.org.au/kites_in_the_classroom/plans.htm
www.aka.org.au/kites_in_the_classroom/student.htm

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The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference

The United Methodist Church

Office of Urban Ministries

Bishop Peter D. Weaver, Resident Bishop, Philadelphia Area

Rev. Dr. Dorothy Watson Tatem, Director

Mrs. Evangeline Johnson, Administrative Assistant

Located at:

Simpson House

2101 Belmont Avenue

Philadelphia, PA     19131-1628

Phone: 215-878-8054

Toll Free: 800-866-6855

Fax: 215-878-8342

E-mail: dorothy@epaumc.org

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