Designing and constructing for the Thanksgiving boat challenge
In honor of Thanksgiving, the Mrs. Hoffay’s 3rd Graders participated in a Thanksgiving-themed Engineering Design Challenge. Pilgrims from England had to build boats to cross the Atlantic Ocean to get to the new world. Many of these boats had to bring people and enough supplies to cross the ocean, and it was quite a challenge to make this trip. In this Engineering Design Challenge students were giving a budget (ten dollars) and a choice of materials to buy to build their boat. The challenge was to use the materials provided (aluminum foil, popsicle sticks, and masking tape) to build a strong boat which would be able to hold a lot of weight while staying afloat. To measure the amount of weight each boat could hold, weights were added to the cargo until the boat sunk. Students worked in teams of two to plan and design, purchase the materials, and construct their floating vessels.
Overall, students had to do some planning initially to think about their budget, and what materials to use in their designs. Students collaborated on the planning, design, and building. The result of the challenge (how much weight each boat could hold before sinking) was recorded on the whiteboard. It was very exciting to see the different designs in action, and it was surprising to see which designs were successful and which were not as successful in keeping the weights afloat. We can all be thankful that early boat builders where successful in their designs and we all now have a greater understanding of the challenge of building a boat that can hold a lot of heavy cargo. See some photos of the Thanksgiving boat building engineering challenge here.
Adding weights to test which design could hold the most
All boat designs were unique, and sometimes a simple design can be the most effective
Recent Comments