Parachute Plunge – Clairbourn Preschool Teacher Skydives for Student STEM Lesson

Sayra Rubio, the preschool teacher at Clairbourn School, is willing to do whatever it takes to inspire her students! She recently completed her first skydive on Sunday, October 6, 2019, in order to give a first-hand account of the experience to her students and answer their questions about what it was like to descend to earth by parachute.

For over a month, preschoolers at Clairbourn have been involved in a STEM activity called “The Parachute Plunge” designed to teach the scientific principles that make parachutes work. Students learned about surface area, properties of materials, and air resistance/drag effect, all of which combine to work in opposition to gravity.

Parachute Plunge – Clairbourn Preschool Teacher Skydives for Student STEM Lesson
Sayra Rubio, the preschool teacher at Clairbourn School, is willing to do whatever it takes to inspire her students! She recently completed her first skydive on Sunday, October 6, 2019, in order to give a first-hand account of the experience to her students who are studying and building parachutes.

Clairbourn School’s preschool teacher Sayra Rubio took her first skydiving jump to inspire her students building parachutes for their STEM studies.

To make these lessons kid-friendly for three- to five-year-old students, the teachers from Preschool to Kindergarten adapted the famous “Jack and the Beanstalk” fairy tale to include a story line where “Jack” needs to get down from the beanstalk. Students were asked to research, design, build, and test parachutes that would provide a safe descent for “Jack.”

Teachers Mrs. Rubio and Mrs. Rankin helped students test their parachute designs from a tall staircase on campus. The teachers dropped parachutes made of different materials and shapes while students observed the results.

In the classroom, Mrs. Rubio’s students explored materials and parachute shapes and then moved on to building prototypes. Next they tested their designs by having their miniature parachutes dropped from a tall staircase on campus. This was followed by more rounds of design modifications and more testing.

The students also watched lots of videos of skydiving for inspiration, but that wasn’t enough for Mrs. Rubio! She decided that it would be much better for the children if their own teacher had a skydiving experience.

Without hesitation, she booked a tandem skydiving jump with Sky Dive West Coast, a well-known company that operates out of Banning, California. Her instructor and tandem jump partner was Robbie Spencer, a world-famous skydiver. The jump was Mrs. Rubio’s first skydive. Her experience included one hour of training, a 15 minute ascent into the sky, a dazzling leap from the open door of the airplane while strapped to her instructor, a four-minute 120mph descent back to Earth, and a soft, controlled landing.

“I learned I am willing to do anything for my students.”
– Mrs. Rubio

In the classroom, students observed wind from a fan push paper shapes along a string. The paper was cut into different shapes like circles, squares, and rectangles. The process of testing shapes helped them decide which shape would perform best in their parachute designs.

The following Monday, Mrs. Rubio shared her story with her students and showed them a video of her skydive. They were impressed and inspired, and most of them wanted to know how scared she was to do the jump.

Surprisingly, Mrs. Rubio was not scared! As she jumped out of the airplane, she explains that she felt free and excited by the sensation of flying through the air, awe from the beautiful view, and pride in challenging herself to do something out of her comfort zone. When asked what she learned about herself from the experience, Mrs. Rubio shared from her heart, “I learned I am willing to do anything for my students.”

Clairbourn School Provides Private School Education for Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary School, and Middle School Grades | Serving Families in the Pasadena, California, Area and Surrounding Cities (K-12 Private Schools) Clairbourn is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. Click here to request information.