Paper spinner blade length: the whole packet
Every sheet for your project, 9 pages, already filled in with your question, your levels and your units. One tap prints them all, in order.
Name ______________________ Fair day ____________
Question: Do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
My days, if the fair is 14 days away
| When | Job | Date | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 🧺 Gather what you need and print your sheets | ☐ | |
| Day 2 | 🧪 Do the test: the first try at every level | ☐ | |
| Day 3 | 🔁 Do it again until every level has its tries | ☐ | |
| Day 13 | ✏️ Find the middle numbers, draw the graph, write the conclusion | ☐ | |
| Day 14 | 🪧 Make the board | ☐ |
Count back from your fair day and write in each date. Fewer days than this? The jobs share days, in this order; nothing is skipped.
Dates from my teacher
- My question is due
- Testing starts
- My results table and graph are due
- My board is due
In this packet
- 🗓️ My project plan
- 💭 My hypothesis
- 🧺 Change, measure, keep the same
- 🪜 My steps
- 📊 My results
- 📓 My logbook
- ✅ My conclusion
- ✂️ Board titles to cut out
- 🏅 The judge's questions and my certificate
Name ______________________ Fair day ____________
Question: Do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
If I change how long the spinner's blades are, then how long the spinner takes to fall will ________________, because _____________________________________________
| I CHANGE | I MEASURE | I KEEP THE SAME |
|---|---|---|
| Blade length: 4 cm, 6 cm, 8 cm | how long the spinner takes to fall (seconds) |
|
What I think will happen, in my own words:
- 1st–3rd grade: Keep it short and say it out loud first. A grown-up can write it down, as long as the words are yours.
- 4th–6th grade: Name every level (4 cm, 6 cm, 8 cm) and say which one will win. You'll work out the mean of your tries, so say it about the means.
- 7th grade and up: Say how much, and use a science idea for the because. Then plan a second test: add 1, 2 and 3 paper clips to the best spinner, and graph fall time against the number of clips.
Stuck on the because? Think about how big a circle the blades sweep as they spin, and how much air they push on.
Name ______________________ Fair day ____________
Question: Do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
I CHANGE
the independent variable
how long the spinner's blades are
Levels: 4 cm, 6 cm, 8 cm
I MEASURE
the dependent variable
how long the spinner takes to fall, in seconds
I KEEP THE SAME
the controls
- the same kind of paper and the same size of strip
- one paper clip on the bottom of each
- dropping from the same height
- letting go without a push
3 levels × 5 tries at each = 15 tries in all. If anything you keep the same changes, you won't know which change made the difference.
What I need
- 📄 Paper: a sheet or two
- 🖇️ Paper clips: 3
- ⏱️ A stopwatch or a kitchen timer
- ✂️ Kid scissors
- 📏 A ruler
Name ______________________ Fair day ____________
Question: Do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
Be safe: 👶 Small parts · 🧍 Drop from standing: never climb
- Cut three strips of paper, each 5 cm wide and 20 cm long.
- Cut 4 cm down the middle of the first strip's top end, and fold the flaps out in opposite directions.
- Cut 6 cm down the second strip and 8 cm down the third, and fold their flaps out the same way.
- Fold the bottom 2 cm of each strip up, and slide a paper clip on it.
- Hold the 4 cm spinner by its clip, blades up, as high as you can reach. Never climb.
- Let go as a helper starts the timer, and stop it when the spinner lands.
- Write the time down, then drop it four more times.
- Do five drops with the 6 cm spinner, then five with the 8 cm spinner.
- Find the mean for each blade length and draw a line graph.
Write each number in your results table the moment you measure it.
Name ______________________ Fair day ____________
Question: Do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
I changed: Blade length I measured: how long the spinner takes to fall (seconds)
| Blade length | Try 1 (seconds) | Try 2 (seconds) | Try 3 (seconds) | Try 4 (seconds) | Try 5 (seconds) | Mean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 cm | ||||||
| 6 cm | ||||||
| 8 cm |
MY GRAPH (a line graph: blade length along the bottom, seconds up the side)
What I noticed: ______________________________________________
Name ______________________ Fair day ____________
Question: Do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
| Date | What I did | What I saw | What I think |
|---|---|---|---|
Write something every day you work on it, even the days you only gather things. More days? The three-page logbook prints from peabody.kids/science-fair/templates/logbook.
Name ______________________ Fair day ____________
Question: Do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
My hypothesis was ☐ right ☐ partly right ☐ not right.
I know because my numbers show:
What surprised me, or what might have gone wrong (7th and up):
Next time I would test:
Idea: Change a second thing: add 1, 2 and 3 paper clips to the best spinner, and graph fall time against the number of clips.
Question: Do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
- What made you want to ask this question? Say something like: I wanted to know: do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
- What did you think would happen, and why? Say something like: I thought changing how long the spinner's blades are would change how long the spinner takes to fall, and I wrote down why.
- What did you change, and what did you measure? Say something like: I changed how long the spinner's blades are (4 cm, 6 cm, 8 cm) and measured how long the spinner takes to fall in seconds.
- What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? Say something like: I kept the same kind of paper and the same size of strip and one paper clip on the bottom of each the same, so only how long the spinner's blades are was different.
- How many times did you test it? Say something like: 5 times at each of my 3 levels, and I found the middle number.
- What did you find out? Show me in your numbers. Say something like: Look at my table: 4 cm and 8 cm gave different numbers, and here's the pattern.
- Was your hypothesis right? How do you know? Say something like: My numbers show whether I was right, partly right or not, and I can show you where.
- Did anything go wrong, or surprise you? Say something like: One try was odd, so I did it again and wrote it in my logbook.
- If you did it again, what would you change or test next? Say something like: I'd change a second thing: add 1, 2 and 3 paper clips to the best spinner, and graph fall time against the number of clips.
🥽 Peabody Science Fair
Certificate of Real Science
This is to say that
______________________________
asked a real question, tested it 5 times at every level, and showed what they found at the science fair:
🚁 Do longer blades make a spinner fall slower?
Signed ______________________ Date ______________
Print on Letter paper at 100%. Dark mode on your screen still prints black on white. A teacher with a whole class? The class packet prints the same nine pages blank.
👨👩👧 For grown-ups and teachers: how much to help, the safety rules, and running a school fair. Science fair v0.16.1 · Checked .