Name: Mini Missions: Firecrest Flight
Brand: Estes Education
Availability: InStock

Overview

In this Mini Mission, students explore how engineers can solve complex flight challenges by studying one of nature’s smallest and most agile birds: the Common Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla). Living in dense coniferous and mixed forests across Europe, the Firecrest must navigate tight, obstacle-filled spaces with remarkable precision, stability, and maneuverability.

Using biomimicry as a guiding principle, students investigate how biological adaptations can inspire engineered solutions. Through a sequence of hands-on STEM challenges, students design, test, and refine flight systems that prioritize control, glide, obstacle avoidance, and accurate landings over maximum distance.

Students begin by exploring the Firecrest’s natural adaptations for flight in cluttered environments. Then, they engineer modified Estes Stomp Alpha gliders by designing wings and testing their creations in a classroom "forest corridor" obstacle course. Students refine performance by experimenting with launch angle, added mass, and mass placement before applying their learning to the construction and launch of the Estes Firecrest rocket.

Materials

Activity 1: Meet the Firecrest and Design Stomp Alpha Gliders

Mini Missions: Firecrest Flight Slide Presentation
Estes Stomp Alpha rocket template (included)
Estes Stomp Alphas
Estes Stomp Rocket Launcher or DIY stomp launcher
Clear tape
Scissors
Markers or crayons (optional decoration)
Cardstock or lightweight cardboard for wing surfaces
Materials for "forest corridor":

Pool noodles
Posterboard
Fort building rods and connector balls
Index cards
Masking tape
Cardboard pieces

Measuring tape
Activity 1 Data Collection Sheet (included)

Activity 2: Firecrest Flight Modifications

Mini Missions: Firecrest Flight Slide Presentation
Student-built Stomp Alpha gliders
Estes Education Angle Guide (included)
Pennies, washers, or modeling clay
Tape
Measuring tape
Activity 2 Data Collection Sheet (included)

Activity 3: Firecrest Rocket Build and Launch

Estes Firecrest Bulk Pack
1/4A3-3T engines
Launch pad and controller
Recovery wadding, starters, and plugs
Launch Observation Data Sheet (included)

For This Mission

Standards

5-PS2-1

Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down.

3-5-ETS1-2

Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

MS-PS2-2

Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.

HS-PS2-1

Analyze data to support the claim that Newton’s second law of motion describes the mathematical relationship among the net force on a macroscopic object, its mass, and its acceleration.

HS-ETS1-3

Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints.

HS-LS1-3

Feedback mechanisms maintain a living system’s internal conditions within certain limits and mediate behaviors, allowing it to remain alive and functional even as external conditions change within some range.

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