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Activity
NOAA

Boat Building Challenge

For Students 3rd - 5th Standards
Scholars build a boat using an assortment of materials such as foam plates, aluminum foil, and skewers, then test its buoyancy with pennies. Challenge boat builders to construct the strongest or fastest boat in a healthy competition with...
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

Clay Boats

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Clay itself sinks, but clay boats float. Why? Young engineers build clay boats to learn about buoyancy. They test the weight the boats can hold using washers and then tweak their designs to make improvements, following the engineering...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Floats Your Boat?

For Teachers 4th - 6th
This open-ended boat building exercise is meant to be part of a three-lesson series on ships. Links to the other two lessons are included. This particular part is mostly a group lab activity in which they build a boat, find its load line...
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Activity
Teach Engineering

Keep Your Boat Afloat

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Use whatever material floats your boat. Working in groups, scholars decide on a type of metal and a type of coating to use for building a boat. They test their creations by leaving their boats in a pool of water for several days before...
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Lesson Plan
Center for Precollegiate Education and Training

Buoyancy Boats

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What did the sea say to the boat? Nothing, it just waved. An inquiry-based lesson starts with a simple concept on the Archimedes Principle and challenges pupils to make something out of clay that floats. Then, they design an object out...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Transportation Systems: Two Liter Boat Activity

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners design and build full-size boats made out of two-liter plastic bottles, chicken wire, and plywood. Then they race the boats, with the boat's designers "manning the hull", in the school's swimming pool.
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Unit Plan
Arizona State University

Physics of Boats

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Let's go sailing! An instructive unit includes six lessons with multiple activities to teach scholars about density, center of gravity, buoyancy, and the Archimedes Principle. They can complete the final project of building a boat on a...
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Activity1:47
DiscoverE

Everyday Engineering: Foil Boats

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
Keep one's dream of becoming an engineer afloat. Learners apply the engineering design process to build a boat out of aluminum foil. They start with a square boat, then consider whether boats of different shapes would be able to hold...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Buoyant Boats

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders explore the concept of mass and buoyancy. After building boats out of several materials, they predict whether each boat floats if certain objects are added. Students test their predictions and draw conclusions from their...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Boating Safety and Water Sports - Lesson 3 - First Aid

For Teachers 9th - 12th
What are the basic first aid supplies that should be on a boat? What should be done when someone stops breathing and/or their heart stops beating? Lesson three is only one of twenty-two lessons on boat safety. This lesson is about first...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Boat Safety and Water Sports - Lesson 4 - Dangerous Sea Creatures

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Lesson 4 is part of a 22 lesson unit on boat safety and water sports. This lesson is about dangerous sea creatures, mainly in the ocean. There is a link to find pictures of the creatures discussed. It is suggested to click on the...
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Activity
Museum of Science

Paddle Boat

For Teachers K - 6th Standards
Harness the power of rubber bands of all things. A hands-on activity has scholars design and build paddle boats. They learn how the elastic potential energy of rubber bands can be converted to the kinetic energy associated with motion.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Buoyant Boats

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learners design and construct a boat out of aluminum foil and a few other simple materials. The boats then be tested by floating them in water, then adding mass until they sink. They explore the various shapes of boat construction.
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Lesson Plan
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1
Teach Engineering

What Floats Your Boat?

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Clay's as good a material as any to build a boat, right? An introductory lesson sets the stage for two activities associated with buoyancy. The first involves building boats out of clay, while the second uses these boats to measure the...
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Lesson Plan
DiscoverE

Foil Boats

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
How many pennies can an aluminum foil boat hold? That is the challenge in a collaborative activity designed to explore the concept of buoyancy. Learners use aluminum foil to build makeshift boats and test the weight they hold before...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cardboard Boat Challenge

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Students build a boat out of cardboard and tape. They apply Archimedes' Principle to their design.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dragon Boats

For Teachers K - 3rd
Students create a model boat. In this art instructional activity, students identify what makes a boat float and use milk cartons to create their own boat.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Barge Building: What Floats Your Boat?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students construct aluminum foil boats that float while holding the greatest number of pennies. They investigate the concept of water displacement, record their results, and watch a Bill Nye video on buoyancy.
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Basil Heatter, "The Long Night of the Little Boats"

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
“It was a miracle.” Basil Heatter’s “The Long Night of the Little Boats,” which details the miraculous rescue of the British army from the shores of Dunkirk in 1940, is featured in a series of exercises that ask class members to read,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ships 2: What Floats Your Boat?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students design, build, and test the specifications (water displacement and load line) for a model boat. The instructional activity focuses especially on integrating design principles with inquiry-based experimental skills.
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Lesson Plan
Cornell University

Build a Fuel Cell

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Discover the connection between redox reactions and fuel cells. Collaborative groups build a Hoffmann Apparatus that demonstrates the electrolysis of water and then convert their models into a fuel cell. They use their fuel cells to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Building Boats

For Teachers 1st - 12th
Students research different types of boats in various time periods and cultures. Then they locate photographs and information about construction details of one type of boat. Students also use their research as the basis for designing and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Boat Safety and Water Sports - Lesson 9 - Conditioning for Water Skiing

For Teachers 9th - 12th
It takes muscle strength and muscle endurance to get up on a water ski or wake board, and to stay up. Lesson 9 out of this 22 lesson unit is about conditioning. A resource link at the bottom of the page allows you to view all the lesson...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Boat Hull Design

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Working in small groups students develop three alternative boat designs. They discuss the rationale for the type of hull, propeller, location of ballast, and type of building material used in their design. They build their boat.

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