Floating Parachutes

In the Floating Parachutes unit, designed for grades 2-3, students are introduced to a real-world problem: a toy inventor's parachute falls too quickly, causing the ball it carries to tumble out of the cup. It's up to the class to figure out why and design a safer solution. Through five hands-on, standards-aligned investigations, students explore how parachutes slow a fall. They compare how flat and crumpled paper fall at different speeds, test seed-inspired paper flyers to see how shape affects movement, and tinker with parachute models by changing one part of the system at a time. Just like scientists, they ask questions, carry out fair tests, collect data on drop times, and notice patterns. They see how unbalanced forces affect motion: gravity pulls objects down, air pushes back to create drag, and even small changes affect how slowly and safely a parachute falls. In the final five lessons, students work through the Engineering Design Process to design and build their own toy parach