CRESTVIEW — Antioch Elementary School third-, fourth- and fifth-graders now have expert advice when it comes to making paper airplanes.
Destin resident Ken Blackburn — who held the Guinness World Record for longest paper airplane flight, 27.6 seconds, in 1998 — showed students on Monday how to make an efficient flyer.
PHOTOS: See 11 photos from Ken Blackburn's visit to Antioch Elementary School>>
He helped more than 400 students "see how the four forces of flight (lift, weight, drag and thrust) work," he said.
Blackburn gave students paper with folding lines and instructions on what to do with it. The students then folded as directed and went outside to test their planes.
"You can tell they applied some of the skills and lessons … which is always rewarding," he said after the lesson.
Chesnea Wetzel and Piper Estes, both 9, said their paper airplanes reached unexpected heights.
"It's fun; you can learn new things and it's unexpected sometimes," Chesnea said.
Piper said she has learns "a lot of things" in the school's Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics curriculum.
"We learn a lot of stuff, like about airplanes and gravity," she said. "It's been really fun."
The paper airplane lesson was part of the school's Aerospace Connections in Educationprogram within STEM.
The curriculum is starting to spread countywide, teacher Laura Pink said.
"We have actually had people from other schools … trying to see what we are doing at this school (in order) to have the scores that we do," she said.
Before Monday's activity, Pink received the 2014 ACE Educator of the Year from the Civil Air Patrol.
Blackburn — who also set paper airplane records in 1983, 1987 and 1992 — currently performs aeronautical engineer research for Eglin Air Force Base's civil service.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LIFT, WEIGHT, DRAG, THRUST: Students learn about the forces of flight (PHOTOS)