This week in Year 5, we have been exploring the fascinating forces of gravity and air resistance through an exciting hands-on investigation.

We began by learning that gravity is the force that pulls objects towards the Earth. The children then discovered that air resistance acts in the opposite direction, pushing against objects as they fall. This led us to an important scientific idea: when these forces are balanced, an object falls at a steady speed.

Our Mission 🪂
To bring our learning to life, the children were set a challenge:
Design the safest parachute for a recovery mission!

Using a range of materials including plastic bags, paper, string, cups, tape and glue, the children worked in teams to design and build their own parachutes.

Thinking Like Scientists 🔬
Before testing, we discussed how to make our investigation fair and reliable. The children carefully considered:

Keeping the same drop height
Using the same weight each time
Changing only one variable (such as size or material)
They also made predictions based on their learning, with many suggesting that:

“A bigger parachute will fall more slowly because it creates more air resistance.”
Testing Our Designs ⏱️
The children tested their parachutes and measured how long they took to fall. They showed fantastic teamwork, resilience and problem-solving—adapting their designs when things didn’t go to plan!

We observed that:

Larger parachutes generally fell more slowly
Different materials affected how much air resistance was created
Careful construction (e.g. equal string lengths) made a big difference
What We Learned 💡
By the end of the lesson, the children had a strong understanding that:

Gravity pulls objects downwards
Air resistance pushes upwards
Increasing surface area increases air resistance and slows descent

It was fantastic to see the children so engaged in practical science. They demonstrated excellent scientific thinking, asked thoughtful questions, and worked collaboratively to solve problems.