DiscoverE
Foil Boats
How many pennies can an aluminum foil boat hold? That is the challenge in a collaborative activity designed to explore the concept of buoyancy. Learners use aluminum foil to build makeshift boats and test the weight they hold before...
DiscoverE
Everyday Engineering: Foil Boats
Keep one's dream of becoming an engineer afloat. Learners apply the engineering design process to build a boat out of aluminum foil. They start with a square boat, then consider whether boats of different shapes would be able to hold...
NOAA
Boat Building Challenge
Scholars build a boat using an assortment of materials such as foam plates, aluminum foil, and skewers, then test its buoyancy with pennies. Challenge boat builders to construct the strongest or fastest boat in a healthy competition with...
Curated OER
Barge Building: What Floats Your Boat?
Students construct aluminum foil boats that float while holding the greatest number of pennies. They investigate the concept of water displacement, record their results, and watch a Bill Nye video on buoyancy.
Curated OER
Buoyant Boats
Learners design and construct a boat out of aluminum foil and a few other simple materials. The boats then be tested by floating them in water, then adding mass until they sink. They explore the various shapes of boat construction.
Curated OER
What Floats Your Boat?
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...
Curated OER
Aluminum Foil Boats
Learners design a boat of aluminum foil and calculate the density of the boat. Washers are added to the boat until it sinks. Students then redesign boat to hold more washers and recalculate the new density.
Curated OER
A Weighty Issue
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 pennies...
Curated OER
Boat Building
High schoolers design and contrast a boat made out of aluminum foil. They test the boats to see which boat floats the best using three different solutions and steel ball weights. Students work on their own to construct a boat of their...
Curated OER
Aluminum Boats
Students study buoyancy with an in-class experiment. In this water properties lesson plan, students create a boat from aluminum foil and float it in a bucket of water. Students utilize coins to change the weight of the boat and record...
Curated OER
Float My Boat
Fourth graders, in groups, experiment with density and the displacement of water by creating and designing their own boats and seeing which boat holds the most centimeter cubes without sinking..
Curated OER
Designing and Floating Boats
Learners participate in an experiment to determine if a toy boat will sink or float. They make the boats out of different materials and determine its carrying capacity by adding pennies. They graph their findings on a classroom graph.
Curated OER
The Stone Boat Mystery
Students design and execute a lab through which they study the distinctions between density, buoyancy, and volume.
Curated OER
Ships to a New World
Students experiment with buoyancy as a force. For 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...
Curated OER
What Boat Designs Float the Best?
Fifth graders investigate buoyancy by conducting a science experiment. In this water properties instructional activity, 5th graders predict which of their different paper boat designs will float for the longest period. Students conduct...
Cornell University
Buoyancy
Swimmers know to float by turning their bodies horizontally rather than vertically, but why does that make a difference? In an interesting lesson, scholars explore buoyancy and the properties of air and water. They test cups to see which...
Curated OER
Sink or Float?
Have your class explore density and buoyancy using this resource. Learners read the book Who Sank the Boat, and use several items, such as rubber balls, bottle caps, wood, and other household items to conduct an experiment. Using a tub...
Curated OER
Push or Pull
Learners discover that one way to change how something is moving is to give it a push or a pull. They design their own boats and work with 'The Great Boat Push' worksheet to compare how their boats move when they are pushed or pulled and...
Curated OER
I've Got That Sinking Feeling
Students design a simple boat and predict how much weight it can carry. They should also discover why objects float or sink and how this can be determined experimentally. A great lesson on buoyancy!
Curated OER
Surface Tension of Water
Students investigate surface tension, adhesion and cohesion. In this surface tension lesson plan, students complete 3 activities to better understand the concepts of surface tension, adhesion and cohesion. Students add drops of water to...
Curated OER
1st Grade - Act. 19: Will it Float?
First graders drop items into water, and discuss why some things float and others sink.
Curated OER
Sink or Float
Using a variety of objects, learners conduct buoyancy experiments. They make predictions on which object will sink or float and test their predictions. They use a graphic organizer to record their findings.
Curated OER
Poetry in Motion
Sixth graders answer questions about "From a Railway Carriage." They discuss different poetical forms. They work together to write a poem about travel.
Curated OER
Oil Well That Ends Well
Focusing on the effect of oil spills on the environment, learners conduct experiments to explore this issue. First, they create an ocean environment using materials provided. Then, they make a simulated crude oil substance from vegetable...