Your task is to make a specialized parachute from lightweight plastic material.

You need:

1. A protractor.

2. A pencil and a marker.

3. Lightweight string (kite string is perfect) – you need three pieces that are 20 inches long, and another piece about 4 inches in length.

4. Some kind of strong tape, such as duct tape, masking tape or those little yard sale sticker things work very well!

5. Scissors.

6. A piece of poster board or large-size construction paper.

7. Plastic. – You need about one square foot of plastic - trash can liners work fine. White is best, so you see the lines you will be eventually drawing on it.

Directions:

1. Lay the poster board or construction paper “wideways” on a desktop.

2. Near the center of the paper, and at the very bottom, make a 5 inch horizontal line.

3. Make an endpoint with your pencil on the right end of the line.

4. Line the protractor up with the line, and place the protractor’s center on this endpoint.

5. Look to the 60 degree mark on the right side of the protractor, and make a pencil dot aligned with it on the paper.

6. Remove the protractor and use its flat edge to draw a new 5-inch line that runs from the

First dot you made (on the bottom of the paper) thru the second dot. Be sure that your line is exactly 5 inches long, and is straight as an arrow!!

7. Now, rotate your paper so that you can place the protractor’s center on the end point of the new line you just completed. Find the 60 degree angle mark again, and repeat the process until you have drawn a complete and accurate hexagon.

8. Cut this hexagon out, and use it as a template to place on your piece of plastic.

9. Trace onto the plastic using the marker, and cut out the plastic hexagon.

10. Using a small piece of tape, tape one end of one of the strings to a corner of the plastic.

11. Drape the loose end over to the opposite corner, and tape it at that corner.

12. Repeat this with the two other strings. Gather the loops together, and hold the parachute upside down. Tie the loops together with another short piece of string, (3 or 4 inches) and let the free end of the short piece hang down.