Foster Middle School Eighth Grade Students Visit iFly in Frisco, Texas
By Kay Ray, Longview ISD Foundation executive director, who interviewed students following the academic field trip
 
Ricardo De la Garza and Kimberly Pierson, Foster Middle School science teachers, received $5,932 to take sixty-four eighth graders to iFly, an interactive sky diving experience in Frisco, Texas, to enhance their learning of math and science. 

At iFly, students saw math and physics come alive as they simulated flight in a state-of-the-art wind tunnel.
 
Students worked with iFly instructors in the lab to complete activities before going to the wind tunnel to test their predictions. 

Students received objects such as a softball, basketball, soccer ball, whiffle ball, yoga ball, pickle ball, nerf ball, and a stuffed sloth and examined their physical attributes to complete calculations regarding the objects’ mass, surface area, radius, and circumference.  Then based on their calculations, they made predictions about the objects’ ability to fly at faster velocities in the wind tunnel.  Next, students went to the wind tunnel to test their scientific predictions.  Students reported that the soccer ball flew at forty-seven miles per hour; the basketball at forty-eight miles per hour; and the stuffed sloth at forty-two miles per hour.  Students noted that the stuffed sloth flew well because it had a large frontal area.  Students observed that different objects take different amounts of wind to fly. 

To conclude their activities, students compared their predictions to the actual outcomes for each object and discussed differences.  Calculating an object’s radius, circumference, mass, and volume are all listed in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for eighth grade science.  The curriculum also stresses students’ ability to make and test predictions.

Students learned about the actual working of the wind tunnel.  They learned how speed, velocity, and acceleration apply to skydiving and how those forces act on a skydiver before they were outfitted to fly in the tunnel. 

Students noted that some students flew really high.  Each student was weighed in order to determine how much air pressure was needed for that student to experience flight.  All who flew said it was a unique experience.

The iFly instructors also demonstrated how water will separate into droplets when poured into the wind.  When the water was poured into the wind tunnel, students saw the individual water droplets and learned that the droplets have a terminal velocity on their mass and frontal area.  Students said the water splashed onto the sides of the wind tunnel but dried quickly because of the air pressure, comparing that experience to driving a car through a car wash tunnel.

Students also enjoyed the charter bus ride and lunch at Chick-fil-A to add to their trip’s experience. 

Mr. De la Garza and Mrs. Pierson used this experience to expand instruction in algebra and science and give the students a unique opportunity to learn beyond the classroom.  While a few students described the flight experience as scary, they all agreed they would like to visit iFly again.