Mary Kate Kenney's 3rd graders at Coleman works with her students to see what they know about floating objects in preparation for a clay boat design challenge. Day two of Mary Kate's 3rd graders. They were able to build clay boats, test, record observations, and iterate. They all had successful clay boats in round two. Here are some other resources that might be helpful for your clay boats/ buoyancy lessons. Thanks Mary Kate!
6 Comments
Mary Kate Kenney
2/2/2016 12:08:45 pm
Having the students test what sinks or floats was really helpful.
Reply
Jenni Conte
2/10/2016 12:39:12 pm
The type of clay is critical, RoseArt from from Staples disintegrates with water.Kids need lots of discussion about thicker/thinner, smaller/larger. To start, just get the boats to float, later add penny challenge.
Reply
Hannah Dye
3/1/2016 04:10:14 pm
I did a similar activity with my 4th graders last year. We added a motion component since we were studying magnets. The students had to design boats that were powered by small magnets and find out if they could direct their boats across a "river". It was a lot of fun, and students learned about same and opposite magnetic pole attractions as well as how movement makes a difference when getting a boat to float.
Reply
Deb
3/1/2016 07:40:12 pm
Thank you Mary Kate! We will try and do this in the spring! Thank you also to teachers for tips on clay and suggestions to extend the activity with magnets. That would connect to our energy and magnet unit as well (motion and energy).
Reply
Thanks for posting! My 5th graders enjoyed this project and were very proud of the clay vessels they created. However, I bought the wrong type of clay (which I thought was the right kind! Doh!) and my fellow 5th grade teacher's class had a rough go of it because the clay started to dissolve and crumble. The difference was in the execution of the lesson. He allowed his class to test the boats with penny weights and adjust design. So the clay was in and out of the water many times. My class was allowed to test for buoyancy only and make adjustments. My class's boats had less time in the water so we had less destruction and tears. We both agreed that we will be using tinfoil instead of clay next year.
Reply
11/9/2016 02:45:24 pm
lovely series of experiences, we're continuing the discussion about more extensions of lessons vs. the time for iterations. Discussion has greatly extended knowledge of factors determining success of iterations Leave a Reply. |
Archive
February 2017
|
Home
Contact |
iTEAMS is a professional development research project designed to provide teachers with support to deepen their content knowledge and pedagogy to promote STEM education aligned to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
|