At a Glance:
Students use simple materials like drinking straws, string, and tissue paper to build a cool tetrahedron kite!
Concepts: Students get exposed to mathematical concepts like geometric shapes and symmetry as well as the aerodynamic principles of lift and drag.
Details: Using a 10-inch ruler on the included KaZoon Kite template, students use their measuring and arithmetic skills to cut string to the required sizes – four 40" and eight 14" lengths.
To create the kite's frame, three straws are threaded onto a 40" string and positioned to form a triangle. The ends of the string are tied to maintain the triangular shape. The process is repeated until four triangular straw structures are completed. Additional straws, threaded onto string attached to two vertexes of each structure, convert the triangles into four diamond-shaped frames.
Using the KaZoon Kite template as a pattern, students cut out the sides of the kite from folded tissue paper. The sides are glued around each frame to create the four lifting surfaces of the kite.
The addition of one more straw, threaded through an already attached string and tied to its opposite vertex, transforms each diamond-shaped lifting surface into a tetrahedron! Three of the tetrahedrons are positioned vertex to vertex facing the same direction and tied together. When the fourth tetrahedron is stacked on top of and tied to the other three, the KaZoon Kite is formed! A flying line (the remaining roll of cotton string) tied to the kite completes the construction.
At a Glance:
Students use simple materials like drinking straws, string, and tissue paper to build a cool tetrahedron kite!
