Here is a tasty challenge, especially for middle school engineers: design a container that meets mass and volume criteria, and will safely transport a tortilla or potato chip through the mail without damaging it! Mostly, this is a crisp...

The product of the hard work is learning. Scholars use a simulation tool to collect information to analyze. They must decide when two ships traveling back and forth across a river at different rates will meet on the same side. The intent...

Students explore package engineering and investigate design.  In this shipping lesson plan students are given a flower and are to come up with a packaging that will allow the flower to get to its destination as fresh as possible. 

Students discover boats by researching 18th century ships.  In this Naval history lesson, students identify and describe the different components of an 18th century naval ship after researching information on the Internet....

Students investigate the dimensions of a full-rigged ship and a schooner. Using the dimesions, they calculate and compare the area of the sails. In groups, they create model sails that require modeling and estiminating using the...

Students research the importance of naval development in history. The unit includes hands-on activities such as the creation of timelines, powerpoints, and use webquests. Students examine famous ships and naval leaders.

Pupils travel to a ship building plant to see how they are built. They enter into discussion and writing about the task of the building. This lesson is multiple intelligence in design and valuable because of the real life exposure.

Pupils read two books about fishing and ships. After viewing portraits, they identify and describe the various types of sailing vessels. They discuss how the artist showed water and detailed the areas around the ships. They create...

In two groups, pupils research the history and current building of clipper ships. In this inquiry lesson, students present information and compare and contrast the technological revolution with the development of clipper ships. Pupils...

Learners investigate the trip Christopher Columbus took to the new world.  For this U.S. History lesson, students create a fictional ship from cardboard and construction paper simulating the ship Columbus used to get to the New...

Fifth graders explore slavery conditions by viewing a video clip on the Internet. In this slave ship lesson, 5th graders discuss the transportation of black men and women from Africa to the United States in the 1700's and how poor the...

Learners imagine they are archaeologists who are looking for treasure under the sand or sea. They work in teams to create the story and site of a shipwreck in a tub or aquarium filled with sand and water.

Students explore what occupation they are a good fit for. In this careers lesson, students take a self-inventory to find out what occupation fits them best. Students participate in SHIPS BINGO and test their knowledge of maritime careers.

When we think of ocean exploration, many of us have visions of sunken pirate ships full of treasure or mysterious creatures of the deep. What really motivates deep-sea investigation? The first in a series of diverse six-part lessons...

Students discover what is needed to program an underwater robot to complete a course of action.  In this robot archaeologist lesson students design an archaeological strategy of an underwater vehicle. 

Cruise ships offer many engaging opportunities for real-world math adventures. These large, floating cities use resources with numbers into the thousands place. Young mathematicians are asked to calculate numerical information...

Fifth graders take a close look at the types of ships that travel through the Hudson River Valley on the Hudson River. They utilize worksheets embedded in the plan in order to answer questions about exactly what is being shipped, and how...

Package design is a mathematical task for any business. Young scholars use a package design to determine the number of packages required for specific shipments. Using ratios, proportions, and fractions, they make decisions about the best...

You've located buried treasure, now what? Explore how to use algebraic and geometric methods to determine where to place a recovery ship based on the location of the treasure.

Students work in small groups and design a ship out of balsa wood. They hypothesize what happens when the ship is placed in water then make predictions as to which ship stays afloat the longest with the greatest amount of weight added.

Students experiment with buoyancy as a force. In this buoyancy lesson, students access an assigned website to examine the sailing vessels that came to the New World. They work as teams to build boats out of aluminum foil to see which...

Students create a water transportation device powered by wind. In this wind power lesson, students research transportation concepts after reading the poem "Sea Fever" by John Masefield. Students design the fastest sailboat they can...

No wonder the ship was called the Titanic. An investigation of Norse, Roman, and Greek Mythology provides insight into mythological characters and corresponding words in the English language. A close look at roots, prefixes, and suffixes...

Win the war of the worlds! Scholars solve a variety of problems related to an alien invasion. They determine where spaceships have landed on a coordinate map, devise a plan to avoid the aliens, observe the aliens, and break a code to...