Engineers and geoscientists play an important part in protecting the public, including designing boats and ships that carry everything from the food we eat to the cars we drive and of course, people! Boats take a lot of design work to make sure that all of the components won’t break down in the water, including the computer systems inside that run the motors. Boats need to float and be able to move through the water in a variety of conditions.

Goal

Design a boat that can carry a cell phone or iPod (sealed in a plastic bag!) without sinking. 

Instructions

Instruct participants to use objects they can find around the house to create their boat (some examples are below).

We recommend testing the boat in the bathtub and try to get it to move from one side to the other. How does the boat react if you make waves in the tub? Make sure that if  testing with electronics they are in a sealed plastic bag so that they don’t get wet!

Example materials

Use these or any other materials that can be found around the house to work with:

• Recycling
• Styrofoam
• Aluminum Foil
• Cardboard
• Plastic Bags
• Craft sticks
• Tape
• Glue
• Pipe Cleaners