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Project challenge:

Flying floppy friends

Suggested Ages: K – 2nd Grades

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a flying paper friend! In this challenge you’ll design a set of paper characters and then launch them using an air-filled zipper bag. You’ll need to BE VISIONARY by inventing new paper and weight arrangements for each of your friends to get them to fly in different ways.

Engaging Design-It-Yourself projects to inspire young innovators

This is no ordinary DIY project for kids: It’s a step toward becoming an innovator.

 

Every Galileo Design-It-Yourself Challenge teaches the same techniques and mindsets that professional designers an engineers, artists and chefs use in their work. With skills like these, we believe you can change the world.

Get Involved—For Grown Ups

Materials list:

Help your child find these materials or a close substitute: 

 

  • 1 gallon-size zipper bag
  • Paper
  • Drawing tools (like markers, crayons, or pencils)
  • Scissors
  • Tape (masking or blue tape works best)
  • 4-10 pennies, for weight

 

Activity GUIDE:

Refer to these steps to keep young innovators on track as they create:

 

 

1. Draw and cut a body shape.

 

2. Tape on a head and appendages.

 

3. Tape penny weights on the back of the character-friend—Support kids with this step as necessary (1:24).

 

4. Test by using a partially blown up ziplock bag to launch the friend—Support kids with this as necessary (1:35).

 

5. Experiment with different designs to create two other friends that fly differently.

 

  • Support being visionary—If kids are having trouble coming up with new designs, encourage them to try the exact opposite of what they just did or try the wackiest idea they can think of just to see what happens. 
  • Ask: What body shape can you try that you haven’t tried yet? 
  • Ask: What if you made fewer/more/smaller/bigger appendages?
  • Ask: How might you change the amount or position of your weight?

 

More Ideas:

Every project presents opportunities to add your own twists or extensions. Here are some ideas to get you started:

 

  • Innovate On! Experiment with different lightweight materials. What if you used cardboard for your friend instead of paper? What if you added fabric or plastic? What if you tried different kinds of weights like paper clips?
  • Create targets and try to get your flying floppy friends to land on them. Set the targets at different distances and see if you can get a different friend to land on each one!

 

Wrap Up Questions:

Lock in the learning by asking your child these questions about their project and how they practiced the featured Innovator’s Mindset element: 

 

  • Tell me about your favorite design. What do you like about it?
  • What visionary ideas did you try to make each design unique? What did you discover about each design? What was surprising?

SHARE!

Great learning can come from sharing successes and failures—to solidify your own experience as an innovator and to inspire others.

 

SHARE WITH galileo

 

Share a photo or video of you launching your floppy friend with the Camp Galileo Anywhere Facebook Community.

 

Share with family and friends

 

Your innovation doesn’t stop with you. Inspire someone else by sharing your project challenge—maybe they’ll try it themselves or maybe your project will give them a new idea.

 

  • Who: someone in your house, a family member, a friend
  • How: in person, on the phone, online
  • When: anytime, starting now!