Team Magma’s current inquiry involves investigating the following central idea: Clean air is an essential resource for sustaining our quality of life.

The students started off learning about what air is and how we use air. One of the activities involved the students designing, making and testing three parachutes out of three different materials in order to find out which material and shape is most effective. 

This activity involved a lot of cooperation, problem solving and perseverance. The children were also making connections between what they were making and what they had observed from their surroundings in the local area. Here you can see a few of the designs and the test environment.

How do we use air?

The students were given a selection of materials and asked to design and make three parachutes using a different material for each. Before the parachutes were made they had to predict which one would work the best and say why?

Everyone had to use their cooperative and problem solving skills, as well as perseverance and reflective thought. After testing the parachutes outside we had a discussion about wind conditions and air currents; connecting what the children had observed in their surroundings to their experiment.

Next we are going to design and make planes.