Hello again from Ms. Aragon's class in Phoenix, Arizona!

Well we finally tested our first gliders this afternoon. We were very excited even though we had an idea that our gliders were not going to do so well the first time through.

Most of the students predicted that their flights would be short and we decided to launch standing on a chair, holding the glider from the middle of the fuselage, with bent elbow and from about ears distance. The students were amazed to see that their gliders did not fly straight ahead but looped and even flew backwards. Plus, all except for two gliders landed upside down. We also had two gliders crash and break, doing nose dives.

We flew a total of 15 gliders:
2 went straight down and no measurement was taken.
1 looped,then flew backwards for about 2 meters.
3 flew 1 meter. 1 went straight up and came straight down and cracked at the fuselage. The 2 others landed upside down.
2 flew 1 1/2 meters, then took a nose dive and broke.
1 flew sideways for about a meter and turned upside down.
2 flew two meters upside down and to the right.
1 flew 3 1/2 meters and landed correctly.
2 flew 4 meters, with one landing on it's side, and the other landing upside down.
1 flew 4 1/2 meters landing far to the right.
1 flew for a perfect 8 meters landing . (We found out later that this team decided to sneak a paper clip to the front of the glider. This now has the other groups thinking!)

The students have begun to redesign their gliders, paying particular attention to the wings, and with the idea of weight and balance in mind.

We will see how it goes. Good luck to all.