Float Your Boat! – Scientific Method Project
Name: Jenna Traub BLK: D
CHALLENGE: Make a boat that can float in water and hold the most amount of pennies.
PROBLEM: How can I use my limited materials to make a boat that will float on water and hold the most amount of pennies.
HYPOTHESIS:
If we make a structured boat that is level and create a design and use the right materials so that will float then our boat will float upon water with as many pennies as possible on it.
IDEA FOR ORIGINAL DESIGN
For our boat, we decided to wrap the edges of tinfoil around the straws to create a tinfoil base and use the straws as a floating mechanism. We secured the straws in place using little pieces of tape. To ensure our boat would float we taped quarters of a marshmallow to the corners of the bottom our boat. Lastly we taped the backing of the label to the top of our boat to act as the first surface the pennies touch to reduce such impact on the tinfoil making it sink
DOCUMENTED PHOTOS:
HOW MANY PENNIES DID YOUR BOAT HOLD?
Our boat held 35 pennies before it sank.
WHAT WOULD YOU KEEP OR CHANGE ON YOUR BOAT DESIGN IF YOU WERE TO DO THIS AGAIN?
I would keep our initial design with the marshmallows underneath keeping it afloat but I would move the straws to below the tinfoil where the marshmallows were to act as a second floating device because I found the straws weren’t used to keep the boat afloat but just used to keep it level. I also would’ve liked to build taller walls somehow so that even if there is a lot of weight inside the boat the walls would be tall enough to keep the boat afloat without water seeping into it. I would also change the top of our boat and put the backing of the label level on the boat instead of making it in the air because I found when I dropped pennies into the boat the paper made them fall into places I didn’t want them to go and I had less control over where the pennies would go. If it were level on the tinfoil it would act as a sturdier surface and I could place the pennies strategically to keep the boat balanced.
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