Remember when you threw your first paper airplane – the sleek design and the simple features that ensured that your plane was the best? In the 9th Grade Readiness course, we created paper airplanes. I bet you are wondering why. I bet you are also wondering what students could possibly learn from constructing and launching these paper-beauties.
Well, it turns out that it wasn’t the distance that the plane traveled that mattered. Instead, it was the collaborative decision-making and prototyping that were central to the activity.
Despite all of the time and materials, students went for the tried and true airplane model. They worked individually at first, for about 10 minutes, trying and re-trying (we’re calling it prototyping) their models. About 12 minutes in, I reminded the students that only one plane per group could be used in the competition. Quickly, the boys huddled in their groups and discussed their plan of attack. They chose the best plane and worked together to make it better. With two minutes remaining, I allowed the teams ONE throw in the hallway to test their plane. This would leave them with about 1 minute and 45 seconds to perfect their plane before the competition. Who would have guessed that a bunch of 15-year-old boys would be so interested in some paper airplanes?
We did three runs – a best two out of three scenario. After the first two rounds, I gave each team two minutes to adjust their models.
After we cleaned up, we reflected on the process. Students understood that this wasn’t a “time-filler”, but that this actually had something to do with high school. It turns out that making paper airplanes has a lot to do the mistakes, maybe even failures, they may encounter in high school. You see, writing, studying, taking-notes, these are all about trying to figure out what is going to work best for you. If it doesn’t work the first time, try something new the next go-round. You may just find yourself soaring further than the rest.
