Design Challenge

Today I set the students a design and build challenge.  I told them that they had to work together in groups to design and build a boat that would float on water.  The students were enthusiastic about the task, and then I told them that the only thing they could use to make their boats was blue tack.  Amid cries of, "Blue tack doesn't float!" and "Blue tack is too heavy!" I explained that they had to try lots of different designs to see if they could find one that would work.  There was also a second part to the challenge.  Once they had been able to make a floating boat they then had to add paper clips one at a time to see how many their boats would hold before sinking.  To add some incentive the winning group would each get a prize.

First the students set about drawing designs they thought might work.  Then they started building their boats.  Some groups divided the blue tack and each made a design to see which would float before then putting all their blue tack together to be able to build a bigger version of the working design.  Other students made one design together.

After about 15 minutes and several failed attempts, the first cries went up of, "It's floating" and then, "It sank!".  A little bit of industrial espionage occurred with floating designs being spied on and copied by other groups (or maybe it was a good use of initiative!), and soon there were a few floating boats.

Next the "passengers" were added, at first the boats didn't hold many - 10 and 16 being the highest numbers, but at this stage the competition was fierce.  Boats were remodelled and students realised that making sure the paperclips were spaced out across the boats and not all on one side, that making ripples, and even how gently you placed the paperclips and the boats into the water all had an effect on how soon the boats sank.

It wasn't long before suddenly boats were holding 30, 40, 50 plus passengers before sinking.  Finally we all gathered around each group and watched one final attempt at beating their own best scores.  Tiara, Saria, Mackenzie and Ellie's group was the winner with their boat holding 72 paperclips before finally sinking.

Great job Room 19 - a fantastic effort.