Category Archives: Education

Science Class Project

November 7, 2006EducationChuck Young, Craig Kimmer, Houghton, Ken Fisher, MichiganDarcy

From: Charles T Young
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 6:24 AM
Subject: squirrels at Houghton Middle School

Hi Darcy:

We* are building Squirrels in the Houghton, Michigan 7th grade middle school science class. We are devoting three class days to the project, and have completed the second day. Most all the Squirrels are flying today. We will devote the third day to fun flying in the school auditorium and some scientific measurements such as the relation between the number of turns and the flight duration. As you know, the construction involves a lot of following directions and manual dexterity in building. We found a pack of tissue in many bright colors at the local Dollar Store.
We will send you some photos.

*”We” are Chuck Young, Craig Kimmer and Ken Fisher, the remnants of the local RC club.

Notes after the last day: We had some contests: longest distance, greatest time in the air, most acrobatic etc. So, some kids that had corkscrew flight paths thought it was great fun, etc. Greatest casualities are the glue joints in the wing corners and breakage of the wing leading and trailing edges. Craig and Ken staffed the repair station. We may make it a point next year to have the students read and follow your written directions carefully rather than rely on our spoken instructions.

We sighted an airplane lodged in the rafters of the auditorium since last year. It has been there all year, so everyone who has sat in the auditorium could see it.

Chuck Young

Pin It

School Project for Aviation and Science

October 5, 2006Education, Sighting, TestimonialSlater HarrisonDarcy

The following quote is from the Science Toy Maker Web site:

“Note: I am not a very humble person, but I have come across a really great beginners airplane design by Mr. Darcy Whyte that is better than what I have been making. It’s called the Squirrel. I will still write out step-by-step instructions here eventually because his two pages of instructions might be a little hard for beginners to follow. He uses them mostly during the classes he teaches (if you are lucky enough to live near Toronto you can sign up for them).”

“For now, go to Darcy’s web site and download the PDF instructions here rubber-power.com for the squirrel. Note that he has an instructional video there, too. You might be able to stream it with a fast connection, or right-click and ‘save target as.’ ”

–Slater Harrison, Pennsylvania

Pin It

Squirrels appear in another school

June 10, 2006Education, Gallery, Outreach, TestimonialKids, Victor Smedstad, WashingtonDarcy

Here’s some information I got from Victor I. Smedstad:

Got Squirrel from the Internet a month or so ago. I have been trying to build model airplanes since about 1941 with a nickel or dime Comet Curtis Robin. Most of my so called scale attempts flew like rocks, so much of what I have built has been flyers. For the past 7 years I have been volunteering three days a week at an elementary school in Bremerton, Washington, adjoining the Naval Base. I wanted to work on flying models with kids, but until Squirrel, they all required Xacto or razor blades and that meant risk of injury which could only be minimized with one adult to one kid, a ratio I could not come even close to. So no building.

Then Squirrel!!

After my third Squirrel, I made some modifications, none of which modified the basic design. A fifth grade teacher was willing to work with me and I found that most shoe boxes were 11 inches or more in width, but few were as much as 12 inches in width. So the first modification was to reduce the wing span to 11 inches.

Because time was a problem, and fifth graders are not too good at measuring, I made a Sharpie mark at the middle of the wing leading and trailing edges, and at the middle of the horizontal stab LE and at the middle of two 2inch ribs for the end ribs.

In addition I redrew the instructions as plans on my $10 CAD program. Found out later that fifth graders have difficulty dealing with plans, but could do what they were told to do.

I tried it out first on a fourth grader, just one. As tying the tooth pick on with thread was more that kids could do, I eliminated the thread and added a 3/8 inch X 3/16 piece to butt up against the tooth pick.

I then got a group of five kids who were willing to stay after school and used two sessions to make sure the white glue had time to dry thoroughly.

They then acted as classroom experts when we then had the remaining 20 kids do the Squirrel.

Attachments: First, a shot of the classroom: Flegel class 00. Because there was no way we could get 25 kids flying squirrels in the gym, we flew outside. Flegel class 06. And all 25 flew: Flegel class 17.

I am impressed as were the kids.

Victor I. Smedstad

Pin It

250 Squirrels per year in Jersey Shore

January 5, 2006Education, Gallery, Sighting, TestimonialKids, Slater HarrisonDarcy

I teach in the Jersey Shore Area School District, a technology teacher at the middle school. Jersey Shore is landlocked in central Pennsylvania, a hundred miles away from New Jersey and even farther from the Jersey Shore, but otherwise well named.

Over 250 6th grade students make the plane each year.

Slater Harrison (Jan 2006)