Sinking and Sailing
Our aim was to try and find things in nature that would float or sink. We floated all these boat creations to see if they would float or sink. They had to be able to hold a lego man.
We made our boat creations from bark, leaves, sticks, vines, reeds, palm leaves and seed pods.
We filled a tub with water and placed our creations carefully to test them. We tested them in three ways:
- To see if they stayed afloat
- To see if they could stay afloat in heavy winds
- To see if they could stay afloat in strong wave action
We used a book to create the winds and we used our hand to stir the water and make the waves.
Our observation
Lisa’s boat made of paper bark and plain bark wrapped with leaves floated a long time and passed all three tests. Jessica’s, Alexis’s, Chenaya’s, Julian’s and Abby’s passed only two of the three tests. The rest sank immediately when placed in the water.
Our findings
We found bark’s not the best thing to use, leaves float well but when they fill with water they sink. Paper bark was the best to use because it is light and flexible, it had many layers which made it waterproof. It’s canoe like shape made it stable and harder for the water to get into. The curved design and the sides going up made it harder for the water to get in as well.
