Category Archives: Engineering

How I Made It: SpaceX exec Gwynne Shotwell – Los Angeles Times

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The president and operations chief of rocket builder SpaceX parlayed her childhood interest in machines into a career in engineering and aerospace.

June 07, 2013 | By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times

“I knew early on, if these guys [at SpaceX] couldn’t make it… nobody will.”

The gig: Gwynne Shotwell, 49, is president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, the Hawthorne company that builds rockets and space capsules to resupply the International Space Station for NASA. Shotwell is No. 2 at the pioneering company behind founder and chief executive Elon Musk. She is responsible for Continue reading →

6th Graders Investigate Paper Airplane Designs

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6th graders are busy investigating paper airplane designs in order to better understand how their changes affect their designs. Particular care is being given to observing changes in distance flown, height flown, and/or how many twists, loops or stunts the plane performs.

OTA Home  Link (all 6th graders should be able to answer the following questions):

  1. What are some important characteristics of paper airplanes that make them fly farther?
  2. How does surface area affect how high or far a plane flies?
  3. What is center of mass and how does it affect the flight of paper airplanes?