Students 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.

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...

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...

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.

Young scholars engage in this, the third in a three-part series on ships. The overall lesson series is designed to allow students to extend their understanding of floating, sinking, density, and buoyancy and apply it to the design and...

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...

  Students build boats out of clay to test the buoyancy of the boat in water.  Students break into pairs and construct their boat to specific guide lines, then experiment with their boat in the water.   

Students build a boat out of cardboard and tape. They apply Archimedes' Principle to their design.

Design a canal boat fleet by having learners research canal boats and their original coloring. They will then work individually to create a 21st century design for a fleet of canal boats. Note: This is a UK lesson with great ideas that...

Steer young minds to build better boats. Future engineers first spend a few days exploring the TinkerCAD software and completing some embedded lessons. They then design sea crafts with buoyancy in mind and print them using a 3-D printer.

Young scholars design a boat model with simplified steam engine. In this ecology lesson, students compare renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. They determine the efficiency of their boat model.

Eighth graders design and construct a safe and efficient human powered watercraft that can be used on a trip on the Great Lakes. Students utilize math and measurement skills to design and cut the pieces for their boat. Working in...

Young scholars explore the principles of buoyancy and Archimedes' Principle and design their own flotation device. They compare the dimensions of a model to the real object to determine scale and analyze the models to suggest improvements.

Want to get your students motivated in science class? Given only a piece of aluminum foil, assign groups the task of designing a "barge" that will support the weight of a bunch of pennies.  The group who is able to put the most...

Middle schoolers work together to design an Egyptian funerary barge. They discover the importance of the afterlife to Egyptians. They create their boat and share their design with the class. They compare and contrast the technology of...

Pupils build a boat. They explore and examine the types of materials used in boat building. In groups, pupils copy their plans onto the plywood and begin to build the boat. During this fifteen day program, students follow instructions to...

Students design an experiment to find density using Archimedes' Principle. In this physics lesson, students calculate density using mass and volume. They share their findings in class.

Student design their own canal company logo/design. In this design and creativity lesson plan, learners use primary historical sources as the foundation upon which to develop their creativity and ability to investigate, develop, and...

Students develop a fast travelling hull for a boat. In this physical science lesson plan, the students' hulls will be tested in a channel (built by the teacher) with a fan as the driving force. The students will compete for who has the...

Seventh graders create and engineer model transportation vehicles using crafting materials. They use technical drawing to develop their ideas and choose the appropriate tools and processes during the manufacturing of their designs. They...

Students design an underwater vehicle. In this engineering lesson, students will design an underwater robot that includes specific systems for it to function properly. Each group will present their prototype to the class.

Students demonstrate the decision-making process for marine reserves designations. In this role-playing lesson students analyze maps and data relating to a proposed reserve. They formulate the best decisions based on overall issues.

Students explore and measure the rate of spherical objects rolling down a ramp. They discuss why different ramps work better than others, and practice procedures for testing designs and recording results.

High schoolers explain one artist's approach to the Impressionist's use of art elements and design principles. They create an Impressionistic painting that contains two figures.