Eureka! Using the clay boats made in the previous lesson, learners investigate the idea of buoyancy and water displacement to finish the last installment of five in a Floaters and Sinkers unit. Their observations during the activity...

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...

Potentially get all the way across the water. The fourth of five design challenges asks pupils to develop a plan for a paddle-powered boat that will store its energy. Given a limited number of supplies, the class members design, build,...

Whatever floats your boat—with some additional weight. The first activity in a five-part series challenges pupils to design a boat to hold pennies. Using the design process, learners design, build, and test their boats, making sure they...

Don't let the resource blow you away. Scholars build airboats from basic materials and collect data on how far the boats move. They refine their designs taking Newton's laws into consideration.

Find the right number of vectors to get to the finish line. Using a boat race scenario, pupils add multiples of the same vector together. The scholars use scalar multiplication to speed up the boats in an exciting race to the finish. 

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...

Build a floating vessel capable of carrying cargo. Groups create a vessel that floats and can carry at least 10 pennies to model a mass transit system. After learning about buoyancy, density, and energy, they redesign their vessels in...

What kind of sailboat is that? A slideshow presentation outlines the history of sailboats with a series of pictures that demonstrate the design changes over the years, as well as the different classifications of sailboats. 

The left part of the boat is called what? An informative instructional activity and accompanying slideshow presentation introduce middle schoolers to the terminology and parts associated with a sailboat.

Planes, trains, cars, feet, boats, buses, and bikes. Sing along with a music video and watch hand-drawn animation that highlights modes of transportation. 

Beep beep! Zoom! Honk honk! Explore the world of transportation with a set of transportation picture word cards. Fifteen cards show trucks, planes, trains, boats, and many more types of transportation, complete with pictures and names. 

How did the Venetian gondola get its distinctive look? Using this fantastic animated video, your class will be amazed to see how a seemingly simple construction can illustrate so much about a particular culture and historical time period.

Fifth graders apply the concepts they know regarding mass, volume and density in the previous activities to design a boat. Student teams must make a boat which can travel the waters of the Amazon Rainforest. Each group makes a...

Tiny scientists test a variety of materials for their ability to float. They draw and describe the properties of each material. There are 10 activity sheets to be filled out, which may be too time consuming for kindergartners. Perhaps a...

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...

When water skiing or wake boarding, hand signals are the most effective way of communicating. Use this lesson on boat safety to ensure that your youngsters are using the proper precautions before engaging in water sports.

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...

Groups of two to four work together to design, construct, and experiment with a boat. Each boat must include all of the major parts of a real ship, be less than 12 inches long, and be able to carry a load up twice its own weight in calm...

Compare and contrast how transportation has changed throughout the years. This image-driven slide show depicts a variety of advances in transportation. Covered wagons, coaches, trolley cars, boats, and bikes are shown as they were in the...

Boat safety lesson 18 is all about the wake board.  The class learns the terminology about wake boards and discusses the different types of ropes used. Much of the information regarding boating basics, personal floatation devices, and...

In boat safety lesson 21, the class reviews the basic techniques of wakeboarding. They review the skills and perform them in the pool with a partner. There are many resource links associated with this lesson.

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...

Lesson 8 of 22 lessons on boat safety and water sports concerns making adjustments to situations while skiing behind the boat. Young water skiers practice on the Perfect Pull Machine. Click on the resource link at the bottom of the page...