Madison House

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Tin Foil Boat Challenge

Age Group: 3rd-5th grade

Total time: 30 minutes

Supplies

  • Tin foil | 1 per participant

  • Bucket | 1 per participant

  • Water

  • Pennies

  • Stopwatch

Directions

  1. Gather your materials.

  2. Start your stopwatch and give yourself 10 minutes to build a boat strong enough to hold as many pennies as possible using one sheet of tin foil.

  3. Once you're confident in the stability and strength of your boat, put it into your bucket of water and make sure it floats and there are no leaks!

  4. After you’re sure your boat will float well, start adding pennies. Make sure you keep track of how many pennies have been added!

  5. Keep adding pennies until your boat sinks! Try running multiple trials and arrange the pennies differently to see if it changes how many pennies your boat can hold!

Image source Medium.com