New York City Center for Aerospace and Applied Mathematics (NYCCAAM) offers multi-day professional learning series throughout the year. NYCCAAM professional learning offerings provide teachers with hands-on experiences that demonstrate how experiential science can be integrated into classroom instruction. NYCCAAM has developed a performance task to align with the grade 6 aviation program in our NASA Aerospace Education Lab.
Weather (Grade 6)
In a series of learning activities done both in the classroom and at NYCCAAM, students develop an understanding of the concept of air pressure and learn how airplanes manipulate it in order to fly. For the performance task students write a test report – similar to a science lab report, but written from an engineering perspective – to demonstrate their understanding of air pressure and how airplanes maximize air pressure differences to lift up and fly. This performance task should be done at the beginning of the 6th grade weather unit. Having developed a deep understanding of air pressure, students will be prepared to understand other concepts in weather such as fronts. Download an overview of this performance task.