The Wind Tunnel Test
Maya smoothed a strip of masking tape along the seam of the white poster board cylinder. Beside her on the worktable, Leo carefully glued a ring of toothpicks around the top to form a miniature balcony. The fifth-grade Coastal History Exhibition was tomorrow morning, and their project—a thirty-inch model of a nineteenth-century Maine lighthouse—finally looked complete. According to the exhibition rules, every tower had to survive a thirty-second breeze from Mr. Davila's box fan using only paper, tape, glue, and string.
"Ready for the rehearsal?" Leo asked, wiping a dot of glue onto his blue apron.
Maya nodded, though her stomach tightened. Last month, her bridge model had collapsed during a class demonstration because she had rushed the supports, and she was determined not to have another public failure. Leo had a different worry. He had spent two evenings painting delicate black-and-white stripes on the lighthouse tower, and he wanted their structure to be the tallest, most eye-catching model in the library.
- miniature:
- Very small; a much smaller version of something larger.
- exhibition:
- A public display of projects, art, or other interesting items.
- shuddered:
- Shook or trembled suddenly and strongly.
- proportions:
- The proper size relationship between different parts of a whole.
- inspect:
- To look at something closely and carefully in order to learn more about it.
- buckle:
- To bend, fold, or collapse under pressure or weight.
- altering:
- Changing or making adjustments to something.
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1Why is Maya especially nervous before the first test of the lighthouse model?
- 2How does Leo's main goal for the lighthouse differ from Maya's main goal?
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About this fiction passage for 5th Grade
“The Wind Tunnel Test” is a fiction reading passage about Engineering Teamwork, written for 5th Grade. It takes about 5 minutes to read (766 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.