Purpose
Students investigate: What makes an arched wooden boat strong, stable, and able to float? In teams, they design, build, and revise a wooden boat model, using digital or mathematical tools to compare materials, shapes, and weight placement. They exhibit and test the final boat for flotation, balance, and load capacity using shared design criteria while identifying the model’s limitations. Students compare their first sketch with the finished boat and communicate one academic skill and one teamwork skill they improved.
Learning goals
Students will explain what makes an arched wooden boat strong, stable, and able to float by connecting material properties, hull shape, and construction choices. They will use digital tools or mathematical measurements to compare designs and predict how weight placement affects flotation, balance, and load capacity. Teams will apply shared criteria, test model limitations, and revise a finished 6-by-6-inch wooden boat for exhibition and performance testing. Students will compare their first sketch with the final boat and communicate how one academic skill and one teamwork skill improved.
Products
Teams will create initial sketches and a shared design plan for a 6-by-6-inch arched wooden boat, comparing material properties, hull shapes, and agreed-upon criteria. They will produce a digital data table or graph showing how weight placement affects flotation, stability, and load capacity, then use test results and peer feedback to revise their design. Each team will exhibit and test a finished boat to demonstrate how well it floats, stays balanced, and holds weight while noting the model’s limitations. Students will submit a revised written or recorded reflection comparing the first sketch with the final boat and identifying one academic skill and one teamwork skill that improved.
Launch
Teams examine two small arched wooden boat models, predict which will be most stable, then test how changing the placement of identical weights affects flotation, balance, and load capacity in a water tub. Students record results digitally, identify model limitations, and agree on criteria for a strong, stable boat. Introduce the question, “What makes an arched wooden boat strong, stable, and able to float?” Each student creates an initial sketch, and teams assign shared roles before building a final model that will be exhibited, load-tested, and compared with the first design during reflection.
Exhibition
Host a supervised “Boat Design Harbor” where teams exhibit their finished arched wooden boats and explain what makes them strong, stable, and able to float. In a water tank, teams demonstrate flotation, balance, and load capacity by adding equal weights in different placements and recording results for visitors. Students share design criteria, digital or mathematical comparisons, material choices, and limitations of their models while responding to audience questions. Each team concludes by comparing its first sketch with the final boat and sharing one academic skill and one teamwork skill that improved.
