Cape Breton’s Magazine Curriculum Units 

Grade 6

Topic: Flight

Unit 6 Science (Flight)

Lesson Plan:

Magazine Volume Issues: 43

Title: Beryl Markham’s Transatlantic Flight

Pages 47-56

Note to Teacher:

In Science we are required to cover the topic of flight and the principles behind flight. We could easily use this excerpt to create an awareness of the very first Transatlantic Flight from London to North America. Beryl Markham was the first person to make this flight.

Background Information:

Beryl Markham

1902-1986
English aviator

Beryl Markham, a pioneer aviator, was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from London to North America.

Beryl Markham spent most of her life in Kenya, a country in eastern Africa, where she was well known for her career as a bush pilot and for her success as a breeder and trainer of racehorses. She was also famous for her record-breaking, though near fatal, solo flight from London to Nova Scotia in 1936. Markham wrote a book about her adventurous life that became a best-seller.

Born in 1902 in Leicester, England, Markham (then Beryl Clutterbuck) was just three years old when her parents moved to Kenya. Kenya had come under British control in the late 1800s, and after the turn of the century many Englishmen established farms there. The highlands offered a pleasant climate and productive soil for growing such tropical crops as coffee. The European farmers prospered over the years and, as more and more settlers arrived, they were able to establish a comfortable life-style in Kenya.

Front Loading Activity:

·       Have the students brainstorm a list of words associated with exploration of flight as students have previously learned about the pioneers of early flight inventions. ( Wright brothers, Mabel & Alexander Graham Bell (Aerial Experiment Association), Montgolfier Brothers, Louis and Joseph Etienne)

·       Talk about gender issues regarding females during the turn of the century and how times have changed since then. You could create a T Comparison Chart

Name_________________________________ Date__________

Write things that are alike and different about females and their contributions to the world.

Comparison Chart:            Topics  ______________     ________________

Alike

Different

 Reading of the Article:

It would be suggested that the teacher read through the article with the students to ensure a clean understanding of the excerpt.  Once this is done a group of students could begin to complete the events map designed here to focus on the 5 W’s and How.

Event Map

Additional Reading Around Flight

·    Issue# 5- Alexander Graham Bell’s Winged-Cell Tetrahedron Kite

Pages 3-8

·    Issue #55-Bill Mac Ritchie and Early Flight

      Pages 69-88

·    Issue #21 Hydrofoil HD4

Pages OBC(on back cover) & 22-28