Gravity Defying Fun: Parachute Adventures and Air Resistance Explorations!

This Saturday, for our last workshop of the summer, our team created model parachutes with our students to delve deeper into the mechanisms of gravity and air resistance. With only a few accessible materials (tissue paper, string, hole puncher, and tape) for the parachute and miniature figures for the falling objects, the students were able to make and test their products. Once they saw the parachutes at work after they were dropped down from a big height, they were able to understand that air resistance increases and becomes greater than the force of gravity as the parachute opens, which allows the falling object (or person) to move slowly and land safely on the ground. To test for any discrepancies, the students also used different figures and dropped the parachutes down from various heights. Our team had a blast!