Swampscott students get lesson in physics by flying

SWAMPSCOTT – Many teachers talk of helping children to spread their wings, but not many can say they literally helped their students to fly.Swampscott residents Eli Biletch and Chelsea Todtfeld were two of the nine students from Lindsey Polizzotti?s eighth-grade physics class at Cohen Hillel Academy in Marblehead to fly in the name of science on a field trip to SkyVenture, an indoor skydiving facility in Nashua, NH. The field trip marked the culmination of a study of force and gravity.After the students watched a video of Felix Baumgartener?s Red Bull supersonic freefall from outer space last year, Polizzotti said she wanted her students to realize that, when skydiving, it?s not magic holding a body up, but air molecules due to force.?It became kind of a themed project after that,” she said. “I decided I could let the kids experience skydiving themselves.”Before the field trip, Polizzotti said the students spent time calculating their terminal velocity to find out how much airspeed they would need to float. She said students measure their area and predicted what coefficient of drag would be correct for a human being to “fly” in a wind tunnel.?They were pretty accurate,” she said.Polizzotti said it was a first for many that day. It was the first time Cohen Hillel sent their students on an indoor skydiving trip, but SkyVenture employees were just as new to a visit as an educational experience.?I don?t think they get field trips often,” said Polizzotti, laughing. “They kept asking, ?Oh you?re from a school not a birthday party??”Polizzotti said she?s become a school celebrity of sorts now that she has the power to make students fly.?It was fun watching the kids, with the smiled plastered to their faces,” she said. “I?m on good terms right now. All the younger kids are asking when they will be able to go.”Good news for seventh grade students: Polizzotti is planning to repeat the trip next year.Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].