Aluminum Foil Boats

T-MINUS 2 DAYS TIL LAUNCH!

It's a lovely Saturday for a design thinking challenge! What better way to spend some time than by doing a design thinking challenge from the new curriculum so when you do it with your students, you can tell them about your own experiences! We picked a challenge that would be easy to do from home with basic things that you would have laying around the house. We modified the instructions from the curriculum to fit doing this at home instead of leading a class.

Overview:
This lesson serves as a prototyping experiment. It also teaches students about density and surface areas as it pertains to water. Students will build boats that need to hold as much payload(coins) as possible before sinking. They can rapidly build as many boats as possible to hold more weight.

Learning Objectives: 

• Learn about the concept of buoyancy and why things float
• Learn about surface area and how to distribute weight
• Learn that problem solving and design are iterative processes where solutions can constantly be refined.

Materials:

• Aluminum Foil (approx. 12in x 12in)
• One large plastic tub filled with water (we used a bathtub for this experiment at home)
• Coins, or other items that can be used as weights (at least 2 lbs)

• Additional items to make the challenge more difficult could include Paper cups, Saran Wrap, Paper clips.

Step 1: Design and Build

Take the aluminum foil and design a boat that you think will hold the most amount of coins/weight.

I got my brother to do this challenge with me. His boat is on the left.

Is it obvious that I just watched a show about the Vikings?

Step 2: Test

Place the boat into the water tub/ bathtub and start adding the coins or weights. Count the number of weights it takes for the boat to sink.

Brother putting his boat in the water

How much weight will it hold?

Step 3: New Prototype and Retest

After your boat has sunk, think of ways to improve the boat and build a new prototype. Test the new prototype and see if you get better results. If you want to make the challenge harder, try to add different materials like paper cups to the boat and see what you can come up with! 

How much weight were your boats able to hold? What insights did you find? We'd love to see your results! 

Intro to the curriculum

An excerpt from the curriculum on the goals and ways to integrate it into your classroom:

Dive In! An Integrated Design Thinking/STEM Curriculum provides an integrated approach to building science, technology, engineering and math knowledge and skills while engaging students in both identifying and solving problems in their communities and the larger world using a design thinking approach.
 The focus of this year’s curriculum is water. In this four-week program, students will dive into a range of high-energy activities as they solve water-based challenges. They will be immersed in learning about the water conservation, drought, purification, recycling, patterns of use, products that have been designed for those in developing countries and other topical issues that impact global water usage. As they conduct interviews and do observations, they will develop empathy. Data synthesis provides the opportunity to uncover deep user needs and insights. Highly generative brainstorming techniques will give student tools to create solutions. They will build prototypes, test them, and incorporate user feedback. Students will leave the program with the creative confidence to become active problem solvers in innovative, human-centered ways that will help them confront the challenges and possibilities that surround us in the 21st century.
The Dive In! An Integrated Design Thinking/STEM Curriculum Teacher Guide provides an overview of the project goals, background information on design thinking, teaching tips, a curriculum calendar overview, descriptions of materials, lesson plans, and material lists and resources.
For first-time teachers or teachers who would prefer to dive straight in, the lessons in this curriculum are laid out in such a way that they form a cohesive curriculum when taught in the order they are presented – just keep turning the page.


3 days until the launch!