Sci Fri: Float Your Boat Challenge
A day ahead for our STEM challenge.
Lessons abound in physics, weight, design, materials and graphing results.
Challenge Proposal via Morse Code
Using each, foil, Lego, fruit shells (pomelo and avocado) and our origami boats from earlier this week, each child was to build various boats for floating followed by adding weight with quarters.
Set to work
They were eager to take on these tasks and worked independantly, creating their own floating devices.
Lego Raft
Miss C was hesitant to take on the Lego portion of the project. Within a few minutes, she was building a raft, that proved to float longer and take more weight than any other Lego boat built.
Time for testing began.
First, each boat had to float, unassisted.
Once it floated (and every single creation managed), we began counting and recording the number of coins it could hold without sinking.
Pomelo skin proved to be the most effective floating device!
It's size and depth carried 88 quarters!
The foil boats came in second, holding 31 and 27 each.
Avocado halves came third: 24 and 16 quarters each.
Though the origami boats are beautiful, they held very few coins and required even weight distribution on both port and starboard sides!
Miss C's Lego boat raft held 12 quarters, but both Lego creations sunk quickly due to cracks in their design.
After tallying results, we took a look at the two most successful designs; pomelo and foil boats both resembling deep nests. By comparing their similarities ("higher" "thicker") we concluded these were top traits for holding weight on water.