Teaching STEM Through an Indoor Skydiving Experience (Curriculum Exchange)

摘要

Overview: This presentation describes a curriculum and delivery strategy for teaching scientific and mathematical principles of fluid dynamics through a unique indoor skydiving experience in a vertical wind tunnel facility. iFLY Corporation operates a number of such facilities throughout the US and abroad and makes them available at discounted rates to K-12 groups for educational purposes. The program is designed to enhance students' understanding of how fluids produce forces on moving objects and how these forces are influenced by the shape and size of an object and the velocity of the fluid stream. The science of fluid dynamics is critically important in engineering of aircraft, ships, cars, bridges, and buildings, in sports such as swimming, running, cycling, and skiing, and in earth sciences such as meteorology and oceanography.