Stem at home
Parachutes: Parachute Materials
Canopy materials: Collect flat pieces of different materials and cut them to different sizes. Here are some ideas:
- Top right: with the same size and shape, with flat sides.
- Top left: Cotton handkerchief 15” x 15”
- Bottom: Newspaper sheet 22” x 22”r
- We cut the plastic bag and newspaper to square shapes from larger pieces.
Cord Material: collect narrow strips of different materials to attach the canopy to the load. These will be cut to different lengths depending on the size of the canopy.
- At the top of the photo are a piece of green cord and spools of tan twine and white string.
- In the middle is a strip of yellow plastic cut from a shopping bag and a strip of red plastic from the top of a garbage bag.
- At the bottom are two long strips cut from a newspaper.
Load Material: collect objects of different weights to hang from the parachute.
- In the top row is a nail clipper and an empty medicine container. The medicine container can be made heavier by putting something in it.
- Toys are in the middle row. The Lego figure is nice because you can change the load by adding or taking away Lego blocks.
- In the bottom row are things which are also fasteners: a yellow and purple plastic bag clip, two black bull dog clips of different sizes, and paper clips. These clips are also easy to make heavier by simply clipping on more.
Fasteners: Materials / methods to attach cords to the canopy and to the load.
The photo below shows various sorts of fasteners. What is not shown is a method, namely a knot. In the second example of making a parachute you will see that we connected the canopy (a handkerchief) to the cord (a string) by tying them together with a knot.
- In the top row are bull dog fasteners, paper clips, and a stapler.
- Below that are two plastic clips.
- At the bottom are various sorts of tape
