How far can we soar?

Crispell students in Pam Montemarano’s seventh-grade science class took a few pieces of paper, designed and created their own airplanes and let them take flight – all for an exercise in measurement.

A group of about 20 middle school students stand on a white line in a parking lot and throw their paper airplanes forward.

The class just finished studying the scientific method. For this project, they made their own paper airplanes, whatever size they wanted, using four pieces of printer paper. Then they each chose a variable for their experiment – some threw their planes with different hands, for example.

A group of about 20 middle school students stand on a straight line and throw paper airplanes onto blacktop.

A middle-school boy wearing a denim jacket with black sleeves and hood uses a wooden measuring stick to measure the distance he threw the paper airplane that's on the ground.

It was a bit breezy so some of the planes went backwards. One went pretty far forward – it was the biggest of the bunch and flew 928 centimeters (that’s 30.44 feet). Since this was part of a measuring unit, that was an important calculation. The students used yardsticks that were marked with various units of measure, to calculate their flight distance.

A seventh-grade student wearing a purple sweatshirt and jeans squats down and measures with a wooden yardstick on blacktop.

Then they used their variable and threw their planes again. This time, one of the planes flew 1,335 centimeters (a whopping 43.8 feet)! The variable used by this student – he closed his eyes!

A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, wearing blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt and vest, helps a student measure with a yard stick. The student is bending down to pick up the stick along blacktop. The student is wearing black shorts, sneakers and a gray sweatshirt.

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