Aerospace Engineering Activities

How to Make Rubber Band Propeller Plane

The very first planes were powered with a propeller where a set of blades would spin at high enough speeds causing the displacement of air creating thrust for the plane to move forward. In this activity, students will build their own propeller powered plane and observe how it travels. Students can then add wings to aid in the control of the plane during flying and extend its flying time.

 

Build Your Own Mars Helicopter

In February 2021 NASA made history by landing its most advanced rover ever built onto mars. This rover is equipped with new gadgets with the biggest one including a small helicopter code named ingenuity. In this activity, students will build their own replica of the ingenuity helicopter and discuss its many features and what purpose they serve.

 

Explore Mars

The perseverance mars rover is the most advanced mars rover NASA has sent to the red planet. In February 2021 the rover successfully landed on mars and will be exploring the Jezero Crater. In this activity, students will run a simulation where they will have to give the rover a set of commands to explore different rock formations to collect data.

 

Rockets in Motion

In this NASA at home video, students will learn a host of important details NASA follows when designing rockets along with the physics of how they work leading to students designing their own straw rockets. They will also learn fun facts about NASA like unique careers at NASA and how to exercise like an astronaut.

Pop Rockets

In this activity, students will design their own rockets that run on an antacid tablet and water. From this activity students will have to determine the amount of tablets and water needed for the rocket to accelerate. To add a challenge, have students calculate how much thrust occurs with a given amount of tablets and water.

 

Anyone Out There?

One of life’s biggest questions is if there are any other forms of intelligent beings living in our universe? This question can be further explained with this activity where the question will be explained with the Drake equation. Students will understand the factors needed for other beings to exist and what the possibilities are that we are not alone.