1. SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
TeachEngineering Hands-on Activity:
*Building Tetrahedral Kites
TeachEngineering Digital Library: teachengineering.org
Image Source:
Teachengineering.org

2. TeachEngineering Digital Library
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
TeachEngineering Digital Library
The TeachEngineering digital library provides over free engineering lessons and activities.
Engineering lessons and activities connect real- world experiences with curricular content already taught in K-12 classrooms.
TeachEngineering's comprehensive curricula are hands-on, inexpensive, and relevant to students' daily lives.

3. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Reference Activity on TeachEngineering
Learn about manufacturing systems by building (and flying) a kite!
Engineering focus:
Manufacturing and Engineering Analysis
Follow instructions to manufacture a kite and apply engineering analysis to evaluate the efficiency of the process.
Learning objectives:
Explain basic elements of flight.
Construct a tetrahedral kite.
Describe basic manufacturing systems and processes.

4. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Suggested time: 75 minutes
Materials
kite string
60 7¾ inch (~20 cm) straws
2-3 ft. streamers
Kite Template & Instructions
scotch tape or glue sticks
4 sheets of tissue paper
1 pipe cleaner
scissors
pencil

5. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Engineering Connection (Real World Application):
From kite racing to hang-gliders, kites have come a long way in the past years. Then again, even with the information available to us today, kite design is a challenge due to the number of variables associated with it.
This activity focuses on the industrial engineering aspect bringing out the importance of efficient manufacturing processes.
Image Sources (left to right):
Delta kite
Spinning kite
Kite Flying by Suzuki Harunobu, 1766 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

6. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Vocabulary Terms
Definitions
drag
A frictional force acting on a body (as an airplane) moving through a fluid (as air) parallel and opposite to the direction of motion.
lift
The component of the total aerodynamic force acting on an airplane or airfoil that is perpendicular to the relative wind and that for an airplane constitutes the upward force that opposes the pull of gravity.
gravity
A force of attraction between two objects due to the mass of the objects and the distance separating them.
tension
Two pulling forces directly opposing each other that stretch an object. Tension in the string keeps a kite from flying away.
relative wind
The airflow produced by the aircraft moving through the air. The relative wind is in a direction parallel with and opposite to the direction of flight.
industrial engineering
A branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated system. The term originally applied to manufacturing, but has grown to encompass any methodical or quantitative approach to being efficient in how a process, system or organization operates.

7. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Image Source:
Diagrams showing forces acting on a kite

8. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Introduction:
Kites were the first flying devices ever made by humans.
The word "kite" comes from a bird in the hawk family known for its grace in the air.
Kites come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and have been used for many purposes throughout history, although today, kite flying is done largely for recreation.
Recommended resources to learn more about kites, including history, how they fly and how to build a kite:

9. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Introduction:
Do you know how a plane flies? Believe it or not, it is all because of the unique shape of the airplane's wings!
Lift is the force that opposes gravity, allowing a plane to fly. It’s a mechanical aerodynamic force produced by the motion of the airplane through the air.
There are many explanations for how lift is generated, found in encyclopedias, in basic physics textbooks, and on Web sites. Unfortunately, many of the explanations are misleading and incorrect.
Lift occurs when a moving flow of gas (air!) is turned by a solid object. The flow is turned in one direction, and the lift is generated in the opposite direction, according to Newton's Third Law based on action and reaction.
Because air is a gas and the molecules are free to move about, any solid surface can deflect a flow. For an aircraft wing, both the upper and lower surfaces contribute to the flow turning. (Note: Neglecting the upper surface's part in turning the flow leads to an incorrect theory of lift.)

10. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Introduction:
A little more information about lift:
Lift is generated by the difference in velocity between the solid object (plane and its wings) and the fluid (air).
There must be motion between the object and the fluid. It makes no difference whether the object moves through a static (stationary) fluid, or the fluid moves past a static solid object.
Lift acts perpendicular to the motion. Drag acts in the direction opposed to the motion.
Image source:

11. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Introduction:
In today's activity, you will apply this mechanism of flight to designing tetrahedral kites.
You will build a tetrahedral kite following a specific set of instructions and using specific provided materials.
You will use basic processes found in many manufacturing systems - cutting, shaping, forming, conditioning, assembling, joining, finishing, and quality control - to manufacture a complete tetrahedral kite within a given time frame.
Pay attention to the quality of the finished kite!
Image source: teachengineering.org

12. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure Overview
Use basic manufacturing processes to efficiently create a kite. The Kite Template & Instructions handout provides illustrations to help explain the steps in the Procedure; it is very helpful to look at the illustrations while following the steps below!
Image Source:

13. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 1: Making Pyramids
Obtain six straws, measure and cut a 72" ( cm) long piece of kite string. Thread 4 straws on the kite string. Hold on to the ends. Keep approximately 3" (7.62 cm) of string towards end A.
Arrange the straws onto a diamond shape and use the pipe cleaner "needle" to feed the string through the starter straw, so that it comes out between straw 1 and straw 2.
Add the fifth straw and place it across the center of the diamond.
Feed the "needle" back through the third straw so that it comes out between straw 2 and 3.
Add the sixth straw. Pull up the straws so that a triangle is formed. Tie it off so that your triangles form a stable pyramid shape. Now, using steps 1-5 make 9 more pyramids!

14. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure

15. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure

16. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure

17. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 2: Building the Kite
Using the template, carefully trace and cut out 20 tissue paper shapes.
Cover two sides of each pyramid with tissue paper. Fold the edges of the tissue paper around the straw and glue in place.

18. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 2: Building the Kite (continued)
Assemble the kite.
Begin with the bottom layer. Arrange three pyramids side by side so that they only touch by one corner and the front of each is a covered panel (all of the covered panels should lie in a plane). The other covered panel should be lying flat on the table.
Knot the pyramids at the points where they meet.
Arrange two pyramids behind those three so that the front covered panels of the two new pyramids faces the same direction as the front three. The back corners of the front three just meet the front corners of the two behind. Knot the two pyramids at all points that touch.
Attach one more pyramid to the back corners of the row with two, again facing the covered panel forward.
Be sure that all knots are secure!

19. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 2: Building the Kite (continued)
Add the second layer of pyramids.
Arrange two pyramids side by side (make sure the covered panels are on the bottom and front). Knot them to each other.
Align the bottom corners of these two with the peaks of the front five pyramids on the bottom layer. Knot these two pyramids to the bottom layer.
Arrange and attach a third triangle behind the two you just attached. Be sure that all knots are secure!
Add the third and final layer. Attach a single pyramid on top of the second level still having the covered panel facing forward. The finished kite itself looks like a giant pyramid. Be sure that all knots are secure!

20. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 2: Building the Kite (continued)
Attach kite strings to the corners where the front panel meets the back panel. With the strings here, the panels will face downward when in flight and the triangles will look like birds in flight.
Add a tail using the streamers to keep the kite properly oriented towards the wind.
Phase 3: Flying Your Kite
Check the knotting. Attach flying string. Go out and fly your kite!
Image source: teachengineering.org

21. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 4: Analysis of Manufacturing
Consider the following questions:
How well did you work to build your kite? Were you efficient? Where was time wasted? What were the problems?
Did you follow the specific instructions and use the specified materials? Did you finish on time? How was the quality of the end product?
Describe all the basic manufacturing system processes you used (cutting, shaping, forming, conditioning, assembling, joining, finishing, and quality control).
What improvements would you make to the kite-making process?
What is industrial engineering? How is the kite-making you did today a type of industrial engineering?

22. Building Tetrahedral Kites
SHPE Foundation Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Investigating Questions
How and why do objects (such as plane and kites) move upward against the force of gravity?
Why do kites fly?
How can a person, or group of people, most efficiently produce a finished product – the tetrahedral kite – using manufacturing processes?
How will modifications of the project's initial design alter the kite's performance?
Activity Extensions
Alter the design and make a new kite. Test your new kite that follows your own design against the tetrahedral kite you made following the instructions. How do the kites compare in their performance?

23. SHPE Foundation SHPE Jr. Chapter Curriculum Hands-On Activity Training
TeachEngineering Contact Information
TeachEngineering:
over 1,350 standards-based engineering lessons and activities
Carleigh Samson, TeachEngineering Editor
Questions?