Curated OER
Float Your Boat
Young scholars design an experiment to find density using Archimedes' Principle. In this physics lesson plan, students calculate density using mass and volume. They share their findings in class.
Curated OER
Build Your Own Submarine
Students construct their own submarine following a certain procedure. In this physics lesson, students calculate the density of objects using a mathematical formula. They explain why some object floats in water while some do not.
DiscoverE
Design a Flotation Device
Save the soup! Scholars devise a flotation device using straws, balloons, foam, corks, and other objects. A can of soup must stay afloat for at least a minute with this device—your dinner might depend on it!
Curated OER
Transportation with Lewis and Clark
Students listen to a PowerPoint presentation and complete a Venn diagram comparing the methods of transportation in the early 1800s with today's transportation. They experiment with the buoyancy of keelboats.
Curated OER
Inventions 2: The Impact
Students research inventors and inventions and their impacts. In this invention lesson, students research inventions and their affects in good and bad ways.
Curated OER
Sink or Float?
Young scholars make and test predictions about sinking and floating, and classify objects according to whether they sink or float.
Curated OER
Sink or Float?
Learners will determine whether various objects sink or float in water. They do not need to explain why objects sink or float. They are rather to be encouraged to observe that the same objects will sink or float every time, i.e., that...
Curated OER
Water and Ice
Students investigate the states of matter. In this physics lesson, students use water and ice to demonstrate the characteristics of a solid and liquid. Students record their observations as the state of the water changes.
Curated OER
The Impact of Invention
Learners explore the impact of invention. In this invention instructional activity, students examine how inventions are on going and affect all aspects of life in both good and bad ways. Learners will research the history of invention,...
Curated OER
Ship Building Trip
Students 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.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Buoyancy Brainteasers: Boat in Pool Puzzler
This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA: "Voyage of Doom" Web site challenges you to figure out what happens to the water level when a rock is resting in a boat and when it is submerged in water.
NOAA
Noaa: Boat Building Challenge [Pdf]
Read to find out about the first boat builders. Construct your own boat out of common materials to explore buoyancy.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Rock and Boat
Students observe Archimedes' principle in action in this challenge where a toy boat is placed in a container of water and a rock is placed on the floating boat. Students must explain why the water level rises/falls/stays the same based...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Build a Rubber Band Paddle Boat
Build your own bathtub or pool toy from simple craft materials in this fun activity. You will build a rubber-band-powered boat that can zip across the surface of the water after you wind up the rubber band.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Clay Boats
Each student uses a small quantity of modeling clay to make a boat that will float in a tub of water. The object is to build a boat that will hold as much weight as possible without sinking. In the process of designing and testing their...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: "Does It Float?" an Inquiry Based Activity Investigating Buoyancy
This is an inquiry-based activity in which students will need to work together as a class to solve the following problem: they must construct a "boat" entirely out of modeling clay that is capable of supporting 150 grams of cargo without...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Estimating Buoyancy
Students learn that buoyancy is responsible for making boats, hot air balloons and weather balloons float. They calculate whether or not a boat or balloon will float, and calculate the volume needed to make a balloon or boat of a certain...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: What Floats Your Boat?
Learners use modeling clay, a material that is denser than water and thus ordinarily sinks in water, to discover the principle of buoyancy. They begin by designing and building boats out of clay that will float in water, and then refine...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Eureka! Or Buoyancy and Archimedes' Principle
Students explore material properties in hands-on and visually evident ways via the Archimedes' principle. First, they design and conduct an experiment to calculate densities of various materials and present their findings to the class....
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Who Sank the Boat?
This lesson teaches the concept of measurement using grams and ounces through a student-created experiment. The students will get to test their own scientific predictions by constructing a boat and trying to sink it. This lesson provides...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Buoyant Boats
Students learn about displacement, density and buoyancy then apply their knowledge to build a floating object.
![Pbs Kids: Design Squad Challenge: Watercraft (Pdf) [Pdf] Handout](https://content.lessonplanet.com/knovation/original/39865-57ea89204034120cacf80bcffffff89c.jpg?1661243863 "Pbs Kids: Design Squad Challenge: Watercraft (Pdf) [Pdf] Handout")
PBS
Pbs Kids: Design Squad Challenge: Watercraft (Pdf) [Pdf]
Hands-on challenge to build an unsinkable boat out of straws and plastic wrap that can hold twenty five pennies. Provides full list of materials with ideas on how to build, test, evaluate, and redesign it if necessary. Also, includes...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Teaching Measurement: Literature and Manipulatives
The tradebook, Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen, is an excellent tool in teaching measurement. Students will engage in activities involving different types of measurement. In the story, five animal friends decide to take a boat ride....
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Boats Afloat Experiment
Estimate how many pennies a flatboat made of aluminum foil will hold, then test your hypothesis.