Glider Building



The challenge was to build a balsa glider that could be launched by rubber bands from a table carrying a GI Joe action figure. The winning glider actually travelled 440 inches. Here are a few pictures of our students building the gliders.

Real World Science

Tsunamis and earthquakes have new meaning for my students. Many have a new appreciation for the importance of knowing about plate tectonics - and more that one of my students knew more about the source of a tsunami than their parents.
what a terrible thing that sometimes real world science also means real world suffering.

High Flying Elementary Students

My 4th and 5th grade Aeronautics Club members recently visited the Lockheed Martin facility here in Orlando in celebration of national Engineers Week. We were invited to compete as the only elementary school against Middle and High School students in a competition called SeeJoeGo. We were to build a 24 inch glider that would hold a five inch GI Joe figurine launched by rubber band off a table. The object was to see which glider would fly the farthest. We built and brought five gliders to the event.
Amazingly, our gliders out flew all of the competition and we swept 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards! Our students had an incredible understanding of lift, angle of attack, design components, and Bernoulli's Principle of lift.

Aeronautics Clubs


For the past two years we have placed renewed emphasis on the concept of flight. To enhance the experience we created the Camelot Flyers. Aeronautics Clubs open to our fourth and fifth graders. Under the direction of myself and an incredible parent volunteer (who is an expert RC pilot), our students have learned how to build and fly a variety of radio controlled airplanes. We work with balsa or styrofoam to create electic motor trainers,gliders, and "slow stick airplanes". Through grants and donations we currently have three flight simulators, eight planes with at least 36 or greater wing spans and four radio transmitters. More information will be coming in the future.