Crestline students soar to victory in paper airplane challenge

By Anna Reese Kersey and Harper Daves

Crestline Elementary students recently took flight in an exciting STEM challenge that put their creativity and skills to the test. The competition was simple yet daring, as students were tasked with designing and flying paper airplanes using only a single piece of paper. The winner? A student who could craft the perfect plane, proving that sometimes, it only takes a little paper to soar high.

The challenge kicked off with a lesson in flight fundamentals, introducing students to key vocabulary words: lift, thrust, drag and weight. Armed with this knowledge, students began crafting their airplanes. After testing their designs, they watched videos to learn more about how airplanes take off and the different parts that make them fly. One video even told the story of the Wright brothers, who invented the airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The competition was held in three stages: the homeroom class competition, the grade-level division, and the school-wide contest. Students had to win at each level to advance. The grade-level winners included Jeremiah Franks (kindergarten), Maddox Terry (first grade), TJ Symonds (second grade), Addie Teague (third grade), and Isaiah Rigoni (fourth grade.)

The ultimate victory went to Terry, a first grader in Abby McHugh’s class, who was crowned the overall winner. He experimented with different types of paper to see how their weight affected flight distance and practiced his throwing technique at home. His winning plane, made from card stock, soared the farthest. Maddox named his creation “The Class Classic,” after his favorite plane from a book on paper airplanes.