Students in Brianna Olson’s AP Statistics class could be seen throwing papers airplanes in the hallways on Wednesday, Mar. 26.
“We had to throw paper airplanes, two different models, to see how far they went so we could perform an accurate statistical test to test our hypothesis,” senior Isaac Rutledge said.
The students collected all of their data on Wednesday and used significant testing to test their hypotheses the next day.
The point of the paper airplane project was to allow students a chance to apply their learning to “the real world and real-life scenarios,” Rutledge said.
The hands-on project gave the students a way of visually learning, rather than just looking at numbers and data on a paper like they normally would.
A few important steps were taken to make sure their data was as accurate as possible.
“Mrs. Olson provided us two templates,” senior Ava Miller said. “We made the airplanes, threw them 30 times each to prove the central limit theorem and we recorded it.”
The distance was counted by using each floor tile as a foot of measurement and measurements were later converted to inches.
Groups contained 2-4 students and needed someone to throw the plane, measure distance and record the data.
“My favorite part was seeing how far I could throw the airplane to try and get the max distance,” senior Kephas Villa said.
Essentials to the class such as means, hypotheses and standard deviation were all shown and used in the project to improve the students’ knowledge of their recent lessons.
