The Challenge:
Design your very own foil boat and see if it will float!
Materials:
- Aluminum foil
- Drinking straws
- Scissors
- Pennies
Instructions:
1. Brainstorm: Draw out a few ideas, and look at pictures of boats for inspiration.
2. Build: Use your creativity to make a boat out of the materials you have. You can do it!
3. Test - With a parent’s supervision, put your boat in a container full of water to see if it floats.
4. Try Again - If the water didn’t float your boat, try a different design. Keep on experimenting!
5. If your boat floats, try putting a penny inside to add more weight.
6. Keep adding pennies until it can’t float anymore.
7. Write down how many pennies it holds, and see how many pennies different designs can support.
So How do Boats Float?
Think about what happens when you get into a full bathtub-- the water level rises.
When you (or a boat) get into the water, you push down on the water, and the water pushes back.
If there is enough force in the water pushing back, then the boat floats!
The force of you pushing down on the water is from gravity, which is what makes us fall back down to earth when we jump in the air.
The force of the water pushing back is called the buoyant force.
Happy boating!
Boat image: http://boatsafe.com
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