Up In The Air

As part of our weather unit, today we started an investigation about air. 

What better way to learn about air, resistance and acceleration than by making parachutes? Everyone formed a hypothesis to this problem: 

Can we slow down the rate of how fast something falls?

Students experimented with adding various "passengers" and timed each flight with a partner using online-stopwatch.com

We learned that in order for a parachute to move through the air, it must push the air out of its way.  The air pushing back on the parachute makes it fall slowly.  When any object moves through the air, it is always slowed down by something called air resistance.