Boats Project

Annual Cardboard Duct Tape Boat Race

You have just been asked by the US Navy to create a floating transportation device, commonly known as a boat. Your goal is to make the fastest boat using only two materials they have at the moment, cardboard and duct tape. These boats will be raced on December 23th to determine which boat is the fastest! This event will be made public to the school so your friends can buy tickets to watch you race to victory. All proceeds from the event will go towards the holiday fund drive.

STEP 1:

You will be working in groups to design and complete this project, find 3 group members and put the names below. Also determine which of your group members are going to be the captain of your boat and leader of your team. The captain should be someone who is responsible, never absent and a good swimmer as well.

1. Captain:_______________________________

2. ______________________________________

3. ______________________________________

STEP 2:

As a team, think of a team name and a theme that you will base your boat around. There will be points awarded for aesthetics of your boat and teamwork. Along with the fastest boat the best looking boat and the best theme of the group will also be awarded.

1. Team Name:__________________________________

2. Team Theme:___________________________________

3. What do you want to include on your boat to emphasize this theme?

4. What kind of costumes can you come up with for race day to emphasize this theme and display teamwork?

STEP 3:

We will be following the engineer design process to complete this activity so we know it is important to do every step in order to have the best design.

1. Understand: your goals and problems

2. Explore: Look up what designs others have used, sketch ideas

3. Define: What will you need your boat to be able to do, materials, other rules

4. Ideate: brainstorm ideas for your boat

5. Prototype: You will be prototyping your design using aluminum foil to make sure that your boat’s shape and stability will be able to hold the weight of your captain.

6. Test: We will be testing the prototype in class to make sure the boats float similarly to the penny buoyancy lab we just did.

7. Refine: Based on your prototype what will your final boat look like

8. Implement: Create a sketch of your boat, include measurements, how much cardboard and duct tape you used…

A few things to keep in mind when designing and planning:

• Your boat may have to be successful more than once if it wins its first heat.

• Your captain will not be allowed to kick or paddle using their hands or legs, they need to stay in the boat at all times and can not touch the water. So you will need to build paddles or a way to propel your boat through the water, still only using cardboard and duct tape.

• Your boat will need to be able to get from one end of the pool to the other as quickly as possible.

STEP 4:

Time to build your boat! You may bring in as much duct tape and cardboard as you like.

Boats need to be 100% complete by the end of the day on Wednesday December 21st. You will be able to work on this in class or you may find time outside of class to work on it as well if you feel that is necessary to complete this project on time.

STEP 5:

Thursday December 22st boats will be displayed in the STEM wing downstairs. During class you will be casting votes for boats in the following categories;

• Most likely to win all its races tomorrow.

• Most likely to sink.

• Best engineered design.

• Best looking boat around.

You can encourage your friends to come down and vote for their favorite as well even if they are not in the STEM classes, results will be announced at the beginning of the boat race event.

STEP 6:

What to expect on competition day December 23rd!

5th period: On the day of the event you will be eating lunch during 5th period, make sure you eat a healthy lunch so you will be energetic and ready for the event!

6th period: We will be bringing the boats to the pool at the start of 6th period and making sure everything is set up and ready to go. Announcements from yesterday's appearance competition will be announced

7th period: The first heats will start, there will be a random drawing to determine which group you will compete with. There will be 4 boats in each heat, the winner of each heat will move on to round two.

8th period: The winners of the heats will be divided into two groups randomly and compete for a spot in the finals.