Girls in STEM Take Flight!

This week, the Girls in STEM Club returned to the Discover Science and Technology Centre for another exciting adventure into the world of aerodynamics, with next week’s experiments already on the horizon.

The girls’ first challenge was simple: Does it sink, fly, hover or stick?  Working in teams of two to four, they were handed scrap paper and challenged to turn it into different shapes.  The creations then took flight in the wind tunnels, where the girls sorted them into their categories and became instant aerodynamics detectives.

They quickly discovered that shape, weight and surface area can make a huge difference.  Dense, compact balls tended to sink, while lighter shapes with more surface area were swept upwards and away.  Some clever designs even managed to hover!

Next came the hover challenge.  With only aluminium foil, tissue paper, rubber bands and a few sticks, the teams had to build something that could stay airborne for one minute.  ‘Trial and error’ was the name of the game, and the girls embraced it.  Some creations stayed up for an amazing three minutes!

But the challenges kept getting harder.  The girls had to test their designs in different wind speeds and then add passengers, first one animal toy, then two, without sending their passengers tumbling to the ground.

By the end, the girls had discovered that balancing weight, surface area and verticality is a tricky business.  More importantly, they discovered that STEM is about curiosity, creativity, experimentation and having the confidence to keep trying.  And, of course, science is much more fun when things fly!