Clay Boats
Students use a small quantity of modeling clay to make boats that float in a tub of water. The object is to build boats that hold as much weight as possible without sinking. In the process of designing and testing their prototype creations, students discover some of the basic principles of boat design, gain first-hand experience with concepts such as buoyancy and density, and experience the steps of the engineering design process.
Students quickly find that when they mold clay into shapes resembling this inflatable raft, the clay floats much better than if it is molded into shapes resembling more typical boat hulls.Copyright U.S. Bureau of Land Management http://www.or.blm.gov/roseburg/images/Recreation/rafting2.jpg
Density is an important property in many materials engineering applications. Building clay boats to hold as much weight as possible is a classic engineering design problem.
After this activity, students will be able to:
- Describe a means to make a material that is denser than water (modeling clay) float.
- Describe the steps of the engineering design process used to create a dense but floatable object.