Drag, evidence and honesty · Alberta Grade 5 · maddyhelps.com
Make three parachutes from a plastic bag — small, medium and large — with the same string and the same weight (a washer or a clothes peg). Drop each three times from the same height and time the fall.
| Canopy | Trial 1 | Trial 2 | Trial 3 | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | ||||
| Medium | ||||
| Large |
What I changed on purpose
What I kept the same
What the results show about drag
A result I did not expect — and I kept it
A fair parachute test
Changed: the canopy size. Kept the same: the weight, the string, the height, the way it was dropped. Usually the larger canopy falls more slowly, because more air pushes back against it: that push is drag. The last line is the bias outcome — a surprising trial is recorded, not rubbed out.
Alberta's outcome includes bias and ethics. The ethics part is simple here — nothing living is harmed — and the bias part is the last line: keeping the trial that did not fit.
Why this matters is on the looking closely page. More sheets