🪂 Parachute size and fall time: the whole packet

🪂 Parachute size and fall time · 3rd–8th grade · 1 day of testing · free · 60 minutes a sitting

My days, if the fair is 14 days away

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

1. 🗓️ My project plan
2. 💭 My hypothesis
3. 🧺 Change, measure, keep the same
4. 🪜 My steps
5. 📊 My results
6. 📓 My logbook
7. ✅ My conclusion
8. ✂️ Board titles to cut out
9. 🏅 The judge's questions and my certificate

If I change the size of the parachute, then how long the parachute takes to fall will ________________, because _____________________________________________

What I think will happen, in my own words:

3 levels × 3 tries at each = 9 tries in all. If anything you keep the same changes, you won't know which change made the difference.

What I need

• 🛍️ Plastic bags: 3 big ones
• 🧵 String or yarn: 12 pieces, each 30 cm
• 🖇️ Paper clips: 6
• ⏱️ A stopwatch or a kitchen timer
• ✂️ Kid scissors
• 🩹 Tape
• 📏 A ruler

Be safe: 👶 Small parts · 🧍 Drop from standing: never climb

1. Cut three squares from plastic bags: 20, 30 and 40 cm across.
2. Tape a 30 cm string to each corner of every square.
3. Tie each parachute's four strings together and hook on two paper clips.
4. Stand up and hold the smallest one high over your head. Never climb on a chair.
5. Let go as a helper starts the timer, and stop it when it lands.
6. Write the time down, then drop it two more times.
7. Do three drops with the middle parachute and three with the big one.
8. Find the middle time for each size and draw a line graph.

Write each number in your results table the moment you measure it.

I changed: Parachute size   I measured: how long the parachute takes to fall (seconds)

MY GRAPH (a line graph: parachute size along the bottom, seconds up the side)

What I noticed: ______________________________________________

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.

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: keep the 30 cm parachute and hang 2, 4 and 6 paper clips, then graph both tests.

1. What made you want to ask this question? Say something like: I wanted to know: does a bigger parachute fall slower?
2. What did you think would happen, and why? Say something like: I thought changing the size of the parachute would change how long the parachute takes to fall, and I wrote down why.
3. What did you change, and what did you measure? Say something like: I changed the size of the parachute (20 cm square, 30 cm square, 40 cm square) and measured how long the parachute takes to fall in seconds.
4. What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? Say something like: I kept the same weight hanging underneath and dropping it from the same height the same, so only the size of the parachute was different.
5. How many times did you test it? Say something like: 3 times at each of my 3 levels, and I found the middle number.
6. What did you find out? Show me in your numbers. Say something like: Look at my table: 20 cm square and 40 cm square gave different numbers, and here's the pattern.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. If you did it again, what would you change or test next? Say something like: I'd change a second thing: keep the 30 cm parachute and hang 2, 4 and 6 paper clips, then graph both tests.