Mechanical Engineering Fling Flyer Challenge for Girl Scout Brownies

Do you want to try out the mechanical engineering design challenges with your Brownie troop? Did your Brownie Girl Scouts absolutely love the Mechanical Engineering Leap Bot Design Challenge? If you haven’t done the leap bot challenge yet, be sure to check out our guide to making Brownie Leap Bots. Are you ready to try the Brownie Fling Flyer Design Challenge? Well, we’ve got the guide for you.

We decided to try the mechanical engineering badges on a whim with our girls. When asked, our girls showed no desire to try these badges based on the names along. However, they also seemed to only want to focus on outdoor or field trip badges. Needing a little break from field trips and with the weather turning cold, we decided to try out the new mechanical engineering badges. We thought we’d start with Leap Bots since it seemed like an easier one for the girls to create but with lots of problem solving and thinking.

What is a Fling Flyer?

A fling flyer is basically a paper airplane built on dowel rod. The fling flyer takes a little more planning and work on the part of the Brownie Girl Scouts than the leap bot. However, your scouts can design and create a fling flyer in just a few minutes with a few simple supplies. Or you can use a Goldieblox Making Things Zoom Kit instead. This kit has all the pieces you will need to make a fling flyer. However, we had some difficulty obtaining enough kits for all our girls and even purchasing them was way too expensive. Using the alternative Girl Scout fling flyer design, we found we could explore the mechanical engineering badges much cheaper.

The alternative materials are much more streamlined than with leap bots. You really could purchase just one size fits all. This allows the scouts to really focus on the design of the fling flyer and the principles of flight. If you want to vary the materials, that’s okay too. Just know that the testing will allow for more factors to be tested because the different rubber bands or size of the paperclips might impact the fling flyers movement in addition to the different designs.

Materials Needed for The Brownie Girl Scout Fling Flyer Design Challenge

If you opt for the Glodieblox Kit, you will need the Glodieblox Making Things Zoom kit. This same kit allows your scouts to build all three mechanical engineering challenges, including the fling flyer. However, you can also make your own kits pretty easily. A quick trip to your local hardware store will do just the trick. Each scout or pair of scouts will need:

• 1 wooden dowel per group. We found the best luck with the 1/4in dowels, as we could use the same dowel rods for the leap bots and race cars. However, any dowel size would work for the fling flyers. Alternatively, you could use straws, BBQ skewers, unsharpened pencils, etc.
• 10 craft sticks per group. We used the smaller size craft sticks and each of our groups used less than the 10 given to them.
• 1 paperclip per group. We used the smaller size paperclip as these allowed for the wings to be closer to the front if the girls desired. However, you could try the larger size paperclips too.
• 1 rubber band per group. We used smaller and stretcher rubber bands that we all the same. We preferred the smaller ones to allow for more stretch and control. However, you really could use any size or type of rubber band. One caution here is that different strength and size rubber bands could introduce different amounts of thrust.
• Small square of heavy cardboard. We actually let each group cut their own square so that they could control their own design.
• Paper of all types. We offered plain white paper, construction paper, and card stock. This allows your troop to investigate the different weights of the paper on their designs.
• Tape. We preferred masking tape or painter’s tape. However, you could also use duct tape. We found that scotch and washi tape weren’t really strong enough for the mechanical engineering badges.
• Scissors for cutting the tape and paper to design their airplane.

Tips for Leaders when Purchasing Fling Flyer Materials

For this badge, we had luck finding all the supplies at Walmart in the school supply and craft sections. Dowel rods are the only material that might be a little trickier; if your local Walmart doesn’t carry them, try any craft store.

For the fling flyers, we kept our dowel rods all the same size, since we used the same ones for leap bots and race car challenges. However, you could easily offer a variety of sizes or even materials for the base of the fling flyer. Then your scouts could test the different weights and sizes of the base for their fling flyer design.

We offered the same size craft sticks, paperclips and rubber bands too. However, you could also provide a variety of types of these materials too. They make regular size, large size, and jumbo size craft sticks. Paperclips and rubber bands come in multiple sizes too. You could even test the silver metal paperclips vs. the color coated paperclips. Just be sure to limit what you allow your scouts to test to only what the girls can handle.

We did offer a variety of different papers. Our girls could use white copy paper, construction paper in a variety of colors, and card stock in different colors. If you are offering a variety of materials above, you could control the paper by only offering one type.

 you are looking for a one stop shop with some cute pre-made bags, be sure to check out makingfriends.com’s Beginner Fling Flyer Badge in a Bag. What a cute idea! Plus these are much cheaper than a Goldieblox Making Things Zoom kit.

Brownie Fling Flyer Design Challenge Badge Requirements

We started by providing a variety of papers for our girls to create paper airplanes. The only directions were to create a variety of different paper airplanes and test their flight. The scouts were encouraged to play with the paper to create as many airplanes as they wished, test, make changes, create new airplanes and test again. We gave very few directions and guidance, instead allowing the scouts time to play with the materials. The girls loved being able to try out different designs.

As the scouts play, you can walk around and point out what the different scouts are trying. Our girls loved to come see what other groups were doing. Moreover, this encouraged others to try out something new. Throughout the experimentation, ask the scouts what they are doing to make their airplane fly highest or farthest. Then ask them how they know. This will encourage your scouts to start thinking of how they will measure their results.

Come Together to Talk about Brownie Fling Flyer Design Challenge

After the experimentation, bring your scouts together to discuss what they learned. Be sure to leave all the materials at the tables for less distractions. We encouraged the girls to share what they discovered. We tried to add very few corrections on their ideas at this time, instead letting the girls share. Your scouts might even disagree, that’s okay. Let them know that you will do more testing and they can check to see which really occurs.

We found it helpful during this discussion to write down notes. We kept a list of the different ideas the scouts shared, even if we knew that it was incorrect. If the scouts disagreed, we recorded that as well. Before presenting the challenge, we asked the scouts what questions they had. Record these as well, but try not to answer them just yet. Instead, let the girls know that when they return to testing, they can try to figure out answers to these questions.

Girl Scout Brownies Fling Flyer Design Challenge Vocabulary

We did introduce a few words throughout the conversation with the girls. As the girls discussed, we are able to work most of these words into the conversation. Try to introduce them as naturally as possible. However, if the scouts do not mention these ideas, then you may need to introduce them or ask leading questions to arrive at the words.

What Questions Can We Ask While Exploring Fling Flyers?

1. What forces affect your airplane or fling flyer? (thrust, drag, list, gravity)
2. What force pushes the fling flyer or airplane through the air? (thrust from your arm for airplanes and the rubber band for fling flyers)
3. Why does the airplane or fling flyer slow down? (drag or pushing air out of the way)
4. What pulls the fling flyer or airplane to the ground? (gravity)
5. Why doesn’t the airplane or fling flyer fall straight down? (lift)
6. What happens when forces are unbalanced, like throwing an airplane or fling flyer on a windy day? (the object moves farther if thrown with the wind and backwards if thrown against the wind)
7. What happens when forces are balanced? (the fling flyer or airplane won’t move)

*Questions from the Girl Scout Volunteer Toolkit.

Then we laid out the challenge: Design a fling flyer that flies the farthest (highest, does tricks, etc). Let your scouts pick their ending challenge. Before allowing them to go back to their experiments, we needed to determine a way to measure and record the results. We put the girls to the test and they created a recording sheet and the rules for measurement. They did way better than we could ever have done!

Making the Brownie Fling Flyers

We provided our scouts a photo of the fling flyers, but told them to be as creative as they wanted with the supplies. The brownies needed a bit more time to experiment now that they knew the challenge. Our scouts started with the dowel rods and attached the paper clip to one end. Most scouts tested their dowel rod with the rubber band to get an hang of flying their fling flyer before designing their fling flyer.

Our only rule here was that the rubber band was what provided the thrust for their fling flyer, not their arm strength.

Then it was time to create their fling flyer. Each scout (or group/partner) created the wings, tail, and nose using the paper, craft sticks, cardboard, and tape. Our girls needed a LOT of tape. Some of them even wanted to cut the craft sticks, which we did allow.

Next, they decorated their fling flyers using tape, markers, or anything else the brownies could find. They enjoyed adding some googly eyes too! Our girls got really into the decorating and needed a time limit to get them back to their experimentation. However, you could definitely add additional time to allow for extended decorating. In addition, some groups wanted to decorate multiple fling flyers too.

Finally, the fling flyers were ready for testing! Just pull back on the rubber band (thrust) and let it go. So exciting and so much flying.

Testing the Fling Flyers

The scouts performed some preliminary tests on their own playing with the force of the rubber band. Then we all gathered together and made our fling flyers fly. The other brownies took turn measuring and recording the results of the flying fling flyers. This helped keep everyone engaged. Try your best to give each scout or pair of scouts a specific job. These could include measuring official, record keeper, observer, launch team, photographer, regulation official, and retriever. If you have more girls, feel free to add roles or even pair up the girls. You can even have assistants for each job.

Our girls wanted an easy way to record the length of each flight. Using a tape measure, they placed a piece of painter’s tape every foot on the floor from where they launched. Then they wrote a number on the tape for easy measuring. These will fly quite far, so be sure to label farther than you might think.

We drew a quick chart on a whiteboard. The girls wanted to record observations about the fling flyers. Each group recorded the type of paper they used and the size of the wings before the test. During the flights, we only need to record the length of the flight. The tape marks definitely helped with this. You might consider adding a different colored mark at the halfway point between each foot. This would help to break some “ties.”

Finishing the Brownie Fling Flyer Design Challenge Meeting

We brought the girls back together to discuss their fling flyers and what they learned. During this discussion, we did take time to address any misconceptions that lingered. We also encouraged the other brownies to help explain why something worked or didn’t work. Go back to their list of ideas and questions. See which ones remain true, which the girls can now correct, and which they are now able to answer. Reinforce the vocabulary words now, using the questions from above to review the activity as well.

Take the time to ask if they have more questions. If you can, provide an answer. If not, record the question to discuss at the next meeting. You could even ask each girl to take home a question and see if they can find an answer to share at the next meeting. If there are lots of questions, every girl could even have two questions to answer. It’s okay to pair girls up on the same question too. This will give even more information for sharing.

We encouraged our scouts to use models to demonstrate why something did or did not work. The girls could show the different wings and test them. We even tried a more methodical experiment by using the same general design with different weights of paper and different size wings. They even tried a lopsided wing span too. This helped the scouts to better explain why their ideas worked using evidence and not just their best guess.

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What a fantastic dive into mechanical engineering and the best part, the troop was excited to tackle the last mechanical engineering badge! They had so much fun that we quickly planned out the next mechanical engineering badge: race car design to tackle over the next few months. Our girls loved earning this brownie badge.

Please check out our other Brownie Girl Scout meeting ideas and posts. Leave a comment below and let us know if you’ve tried these fling flyers before. What worked well for you? What would you have tried differently? Did your girls love these fling flyers as much as ours? If you are looking for more Girl Scout content, join our growing Creating Butterflies families for more ways to simplify Girl Scouting and earn badges while getting the girls outdoors.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.

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