A couple of years ago I did a kite design project with a group of 2nd year students back home in Scotland. The department I was teaching in had loads of willow sticks and one of the teachers there set me the challenge of finding something to do with them. After soaking in water, they are quite bendy and you can do all sorts of fun things with willow, but I decided on kites.
Here are the students' kites up on the wall...
Here are some photos of how I made my kite...
Shape your frame with the willow sticks and hold in place with masking tape...
Cover with paper mache.
...until it is completely covered, like this...
Then you can paint it....
For the kite string, I bought some from ebay very cheaply, and made cardboard string holders. I helped students to string the kites up as it was a bit tricky, and you needed to work out the best place to attach the string for balance and best flying positions.
Did they fly? Well, kind of! I took the 2nd year class out on a mildly windy day and we had some stay up for about 20 seconds. I think on a windier day we would have had better flying records. On the down side, the kites were damaged slightly after flying, because they hit the ground, but they were patched up easily when we were back in the classroom.
Did they fly? Well, kind of! I took the 2nd year class out on a mildly windy day and we had some stay up for about 20 seconds. I think on a windier day we would have had better flying records. On the down side, the kites were damaged slightly after flying, because they hit the ground, but they were patched up easily when we were back in the classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment