Make a Boomerang

When you make a paper airplane and glide it across the room you are making use of a condition known as 'passive flight.'

Man had to gain knowledge of 'active flight,' however, before he could produce airplanes. One of the earliest forms of active flight is the boomerang used by the aborigines of Australia, and we can observe this in action.

The chief characteristic of this weapon is its ability to return to the thrower. A working boomerang can easily be cut from cardboard. Draw the outline of a small boomerang on a piece of thin cardboard, copying the diagram.

Cut your boomerang out and then balance it on your left fore finger. Flick one of the legs of the boomerang sharply with your other forefinger. It will take off and revolve through the air like a small propeller before returning to you.

Now try the same experiment with a small triangle of card cut to the size shown. Cut another triangle twice as large as the first and note what difference there is in its active flight compared with that of the small triangle.

Children learn best through doing

Before children can understand a thing, they need experience: seeing, touching, hearing, tasting, smelling; choosing, arranging, putting things together, taking things apart. Experimenting with real things.

Old-time school teaching used only words and the teachers thought children knew something if they could repeat it. Now we know better. To reach practical understanding we do not need to use many words with young children.

Children are clever. They learn a lot, without being taught. The greatest skill - to be able to talk, to communicate is learnt outside school. In the classroom it's the children who need to talk the most. Unfortunately it is the teacher who does most of the talking!