The History and Future of Flight - Google Slides and…

About this resource

What's inside this resource

This lesson package on The History and Future of Flight begins with an inquiry WebQuest to get your students thinking about important historical events in aviation. The lesson then overviews the history of flight and looks at today's aircraft. Lastly, it looks at what aviation might look like in the near future. Each of the segments examines passenger, military, and space aircrafts.

The package contains diagrams, examples, and explanations. It includes the lesson (student and teacher versions of the presentation), A inquiry WebQuest, 5 embedded videos, and a student lesson handout as a word document that follows the presentation. Additionally, each resource comes as a Google document or slide which has already been formatted and is ready to upload to your Drive with a single click.

In order, the lesson covers:

The history of flight WebQuest
A brief history of flight
Today’s aircrafts
The future of air travel

Included in the lesson package is:

Google and Office versions of each resource
The teacher version of the presentation
The student version of the presentation
FIVE embedded videos
Student lesson handout

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This lesson includes both Office and Google formats for ALL resources. The presentation is in PowerPoint and Google Slides while all documents contain Word and Google Doc versions.
Your resource is perfect for distance learning and integrates seamlessly with Google Classroom as I've included a link that will automatically create a copy of the resources and put them directly into your Google Drive with one click.
Purchase --> Open --> Click --> Assign to your students

Having both options allows you to use either without worrying about formatting issues as all the work has already been done for you. It safeguards you in case your department or school decides to go Google 100% and allows you as well as your students to access everything no matter where you are or what kind of equipment is being used.

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The student version of the presentation contains multiple blanks that need to be filled in throughout the lesson. These blanks are conveniently underlined and bolded on the teacher copy. I have found this to be the most effective means of keeping my students engaged and active without having them write everything out. This also leaves more time for discussion and activities.

Within my complete Flight Unit you can find the following lesson packages:

Lesson 1 - The History and Future of Flight

Lesson 2 - How Planes and Other Aircraft Fly

Lesson 3 - Improving Flight

Lesson 4 - How Living Things Fly

Lesson 5 - The Properties of Air

Lesson 6 - The Environmental and Social Effects of Airlines

I also have a range of assignments and lessons/units from other grade levels at my store. Please CLICK HERE to have a look around and don’t forget to follow if you like what you see.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Students will research and record key milestones in flight history using the linked external sources in the WebQuest (e.g., naming who developed the Ornithopter and in what year).
Students will place major aviation milestones in order, from da Vinci's Ornithopter through the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight to the 1969 moon landing.
Students will compare specifications (cost, speed, range) between a modern passenger aircraft (Boeing 787 Dreamliner) and a modern military aircraft (F-22 Raptor).
Students will describe a proposed future aircraft concept, such as the Sky Whale's three-deck, breakaway design, or a proposed space-travel propulsion method.

Teaching tips

Assign the WebQuest before the presentation, since the presentation's 'brief history of flight' section revisits the same milestones students research there.
Project the student (fill-in-blank) version for class delivery and keep the teacher (complete-text) version as your own reference.
Distribute the Student Lesson Outline handout alongside the presentation so students can follow along without writing out full sentences.
Use the included one-click Google Drive access link if working in Google Classroom rather than the PowerPoint/Word versions.

Skills covered

Historical research — students locate and record flight-history facts from external linked sources during the WebQuest.
Chronological sequencing — students place aviation milestones (Ornithopter, 1783 hot-air balloon, 1903 Wright Flyer, 1969 moon landing) in historical order.
Comparative analysis — students compare technical specifications (cost, speed, range) between a commercial airliner and a military jet.
Speculative reasoning — students describe how proposed future aircraft, such as the Sky Whale or private spacecraft, might differ from today's aircraft.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

What research does the WebQuest ask students to complete before the presentation?

Six sections of external research covering the Ornithopter, the first heavier-than-air flight, hot-air balloons, NASA, and the 1986 Challenger disaster, each tied to a linked source.

How do the teacher and student versions of the presentation differ?

The student version leaves key facts as blanks for students to fill in during the lesson; the teacher version contains the same slides with every blank already completed.