Introduction: All Age Rubber Band Helicopter

Introduction

With this project, you utilize the energy in twisted rubber bands to fly a "helicopter". Rubber-band helicopter is a great project to get your students outside, and can be used for all ages! It is easy to build, and you can easily change the instructions for Elementary students or High school students, but these instructions are for Grades 6-8! This project is very simple to build, so creating a bit of a challenge for your middle schoolers, allowing them to do a few redesigns, can be a great learning opportunity. Try letting them experiment with amount of rubber bands, and shapes of their paper piece!

Learning Objective:

Students will be able to create a helicopter using easy-to-find materials and explore design ideas through testing and redesigning.

Standards:

  • Standard 2: Core Concepts of Technology and Engineering
    • This project is a great illustration of Systems Thinking (one of the core concepts), the students are able to see how individually the materials work and then visually see the importance of the materials working together. The students are able to see the input and output of energy through twisting the rubber band. Also mentioned in this standard is the "Controls are the mechanisms or activities that apply information to cause systems to behave in desired ways" which is another reflection of how the students can see twisting the rubber band creates built up energy, and when released the energy from the untwisting goes into the propeller and the craft stick/paper.
    • Benchmarks:
      • STEL-2N: This project illustrates perfect relationship between inputs and outputs, with an open system it is very easy to visually see what is exactly happening and the relationship between parts. If done outside, this is a great opportunity to showcase how the helicopter reacts to the wind.
  • Standard 7: Design in Technology and Engineering Education
    • Through redesign in a few parts of this project, your students will have the opportunity to express that there is no one way for this helicopter! Utilizing the design process, your students will tackle this standard with this fun project.
    • Benchmarks:
      • STEL-7P: Students weigh the benefits of their varying designs of paper and amount of rubber bands.
      • STEL-7T: Students access why they believe one design works "better" than another based on their knowledge of energy distribution.
      • STEL-7U: Students evaluate their peers designs through competition.

Practices:

  • Systems thinking is one of the practices I think is covered through this project, because each of these materials are very familiar to the students - they can easy individually how they work, but since the product is very open they can also analyze how each material is working with each other to reach the desired function - flying.
  • Creativity can be applied as this is both a craft but also the students get to experiment with paper cut outs to optimize their flying height. This allows them to get creative in their designs as it is up to them to what they make.
  • That leads me into optimism, allowing your students to design, test, and redesign is the pathway to optimization. Testing out different cut outs and amounts of rubber bands allows them to optimize their flight height.

Contexts:

  • Energy and Power can easily be applied to this project as students have to understand and observe the energy distribution from the rubber bands. A side lesson can be added to explain why it is necessary to have the piece of paper, even presenting how it "flies" without the paper would be a good addition. The energy used to fly the helicopter may not be electric, but there is plenty of energy there to discuss.

Supplies

  • 1 Plastic Propeller ($1.3 a piece, can be bought in packs)
  • 1 Card stock/Index card ($2 for a pack of index cards)
  • 1 Paper Clip ($2 for a box of 100)
  • 2 Rubber bands ($1 for 88)
  • 1 Popsicle stick ($3 for 150)
  • Scissors (Should have)
  • Masking Tape ($2 for a roll)

For a class of 30, it would be roughly $50, however, a lot of the materials are often things you already have in your classroom! You could possibly find the propellers in bulk, or find an alternative!

Step 1: Connecting Propeller

A normal sized craft stick/popsicle stick will fit nicely into the slot on the plastic propeller, all you need to do it slide one end into the slot. Make sure there are no cracks in the craft stick!

Step 2: Step 2: Attach Paperclip!

This step is very important, make sure to follow along - if the paperclip is not attached correctly, the force of the rubber bands may rip it off!

To ensure your paper clip is attached firmly, we will need the masking tape as well! I used two pieces to keep it in place.

Separate the paper clip in the middle, you will be placing the popsicle stick in between two halves of the paper clip.

Make sure the smaller half of the paper clip is not flush with the popsicle stick but stuck out, so we can hook the rubber bands to it easily.

You will be taping the bigger half of the paper clip to the popsicle stick, but leaving the smaller half stuck out and free of tape, as seen in the video.

Step 3: Make a Paper Cutout

This step is up for interpretation!

Cutouts can be anything the student wants it to be; allow them to test out different styles of cutouts to see what they think works best.

Material wise index cards or card stock works best!

For this example, I will use a helicopter silhouette made from an index card. Feel free to do the same!

Tape on the piece of paper, put it on the opposite side of the exposed paper clip, so the rubber band does not rub against the paper.

Step 4: Attaching Rubber Bands

Rubber bands should be looped over the hook on the plastic propeller, and the hooked onto the exposed half of the paper clip.
I recommend using 2 rubber bands, but let your students test the difference in amounts of rubber bands!

Step 5: Twisting Rubber Bands

This is pretty simple! Hold the bottom of the helicopter, and twist the propeller until the rubber bands have twisted together, and then recoil on them selves all the way down to the paper clip.

Make sure to grip well, do not want it to start spinning while you're trying to wind it up!

Step 6: Launching

This is very important to remember!

Once the rubber bands are twisted, hold both the propeller and bottom of the popsicle stick firmly.

When you are ready to launch you first need to let go of the top, and then let go of the bottom. Count "One...Two" as you do it to ensure you do not let go at the same time.

If let go at the same time, it is likely to tilt and will not go as high.

Step 7: Test and Redesign

This step is more or less optional (especially for younger students), but I believe it can enhance your students grasp on optimization.

In this step, allow students to test their designs and compare with their peers.

This is an opportunity for them to return back to the drawing board if they would like to try a different/new index card design or change the number of rubber bands they used.