Designing and making boats - senior infants

Designing and Making Boats

 First we discussed what types of materials would be good to use when making boats. After testing paper, fabric, plastic and tinfoil we concluded materials such as paper and fabric would not be good as they got wet and soggy. We decided we would need to use waterproof materials.

We were amazed when we tested the orange. It floated with the skin on however when we peeled the skin off it sank.  We discovered that there are tiny pockets of air in the skin which helps the orange float. We decided the orange skin was like its very own life jacket.

 We had great fun designing and making our boats and even more fun when we got to test them out! All of our boats were able to float but not all of them could hold the weight of more than 20 peas.

We learned lots from discussing why they did and didn't hold this weight. At the end we decided to see which boat would hold the most weight, and one of our designs held more than 60 dried peas before it finally sank!