Kites

Kites are another excellent source of interdisciplinary education projects.Their advantages compared with airplanes or helicopters are that they are much cheaper and you can fly them in stronger winds. Also,you can fly them almost all year round and in any weather (watch for storms!).

You can start with the history of kites,study when were they invented and compare the difference between them among different geographical areas.You will be amazed by their variety as well as by the their usage in different cultures.

Try to imagine how the first kite might have been invented and explore the animal world to see how its flight principle was used in nature.The closest comparison are the gliders and there is a wide range of examples of excellent fliers who use this principle.

Kites are very simple flying objects but you will be surprised to learn about the complexity of mathematical formulas that explain this kind of flight. NASA has considered some of them as an option for landing its crafts.I have included her a link to an interesting building calculator.You can play here with different shapes and see the effects of different designs over the their flight characteristics.

This is a good example of a simple object that can be used to exemplify fundamental laws of physics.Play with the KiteModeler program and you will learn about lift,drag,tension,center of gravity,center of pressure and torque,just to name a few.

Have you ever thought about all these when you have build your first kite.Probably not but your children will!

Don't worry,it will not spoil their joy but will add a new dimension to their experience.The only thing you have to be careful of is the "dosage" of the scientific data you are going to insert in this activity.If they are very young you can just mention some of these notions.If they are older you can try to encourage them to do more research on this.

Making kites is a fun activity and simple enough to be suitable for kids of all ages.Building and painting them encourage also children imagination and nurture their artistic skills.

Building a kite is a simple activity and the joy of flying your own creation will pay of the time invested by you and your child in this activity.If you want you can also chose to buy one from a retail store.

I have used kite building as a starting point for a couple of projects that you can duplicate quite easily.

Here is a list of the best web sites I found and used in my kite experiments:


History:

Chronology

This is an extensive chronology of kites starting with 478 BC.Did you know that the Romans were flying decorated windsocks as military banners or that kites were used in 1232by the Chinese for the psychological warfare by dropping leaflets in the enemy camp?


Building:

Kite Modeler

This a free software developed by NASA will help you to study the physics and math which describe the flight of a kite. You can choose from several types of kites and change the shape, size, and materials to produce your own design. You can change the values of different variables which affect the design and immediately see the new flight characteristics. With this version of the program, you can even test how your kite would fly on Mars, or off the top of a mountain. The program tells you if your design is stable or not and also computes a prediction of how high your kite will fly.


Sport: Kitesurfing, Landboarding and Snowkitin

Did you thought that kites are only for kids? Check this link and learn about Kitesurfing, Landboarding and Snowkiting.



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