Science Investigation – What is the best shape/size for my parachute?

As part of our ‘Forces’ topic, we asked ourselves which shape and size would be the best to create a parachute? After some good discussion, the pupils’ set to work on experimenting and developing their ideas on paper and then started to make some prototypes.

It was great to see everyone working in teams and how ideas were adapted based on previous results and designs. This built into our Growth Mindset of being able to improve and learn from earlier attempts. Upon reflection, we then began to ask if the material(s) we used would have an effect on the performance of the parachute? See our PicCollage below for some of our best ideas and attempts…