Trimming a model plane

When only three students showed up last week,
I tossed my cooperative group lessons out.

The students, a pair of boys and a girl,
said they like math, experiments, and building.

Yes, of course. I gave them each a sheet of paper
and asked each of them to build a plane.

The plane should be one which
could be thrown accurately.

A plane which could land on a X.
The "X" I taped onto the floor.

They each built their own model,
then worked in a group.

They decided to throw each plane
five times. They measured and described flight.

One plane was far better at the task.
They each built that plane.

And this week when 5 students
attended my class,

the boy who designed the winning plane
showed us all how to build it.

I took the 3 girls and 2 boys into the hallway
with their planes so we could test them.

I showed them how to gently toss the planes
to assure the wings were symetrical.

We tried to land our planes
on the tile lines we stood on.

I held a hula hoop out at arm's length;
they tried to toss their planes through it.

We bent one fin up, the right,
and watched our planes turn to the right.

We bent the left fin up
and one child said, "I bet it turns to the left."

We bent both fins up, straight up
and one plane after the next stalled.

We bent both fins half-way up,
and the planes flew down the tile lines (mostly).

We bent one fin up and one fin down.
"I bet it corkscrews," said plane designer.

I said, "We're identifying trends."
"What's that?" someone asked.

"A trend is a tendency. We're leaning how things will act
based on how the things have acted.

As we've trimmed our planes
they've responded in similiar patterns."

One of the new girls giggled,
"I'm trimming my plane's hair."

I laughed and asked them what we were learning,
One said, "We're making history throwing planes in the hall.

"We're making history. We're making history."
"I'm taking my plane to the beauty shop for a trim."