At the ROM we talked about the different types of wings that exist in birds. By calculating the bird's wing loading using the dimensions of the wing length vs. the wing width, you can determine if the wing is most appropriate for powered predatory flight, soaring and gliding, or long distance migrations.
Here is a Great-gray Owl's wing and a Cooper's Hawk. The owl's wing loading sacrifices power for silent flight, whereas the Cooper's Hawk wing is designed for expert manoeuvrability and speed.
Students can look into their environment and find other examples. Here is an example of a picture of a Swallow-tailed Kite that I took:
This is an excellent example of wing designed for soaring!
There is a great resource for teachers about wing loading found here. On it teachers can find information about how to calculate wing loading, which would be a great lesson for math or science. There is also an online matching game which matches different types of wings with different types of airplanes - pretty neat!
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