Once we leapt into the project, we laid out some ground rules.
Working in teams of four (due to class dynamics, we eventually
had two teams of four, two teams of five, and one group of three)
students had to make a floating device that could support the
weight of at least one team member. The boats would then race
along the width of the narrow end of the pool, thereby
circumventing any teams that might have weak swimmers. The
boats had to be created using junk from around the art room. I
originally planned on only having foam, cardboard, hot glue, and
tape, but the material list expanded as the project grew. I had no
idea what to expect in terms of how functional these boats would
be, so I had to make a few stipulation on judging. The first team
to cross the width of the pool would win. However, if no boats
made it across the pool, the boat to make it furthest across in
five minutes would be the winner.
The boats worked far better than I expected and all five of the
boats stayed afloat for multiple trips across the pool! That’s the
good news, but it wasn’t all roses and I learned a good deal to
make the project even richer next year. The actual construction
of the junk boats went much faster than I expected (only about
seven 45 minute class periods) and it was a struggle logistically
VIEW THE VIDEO
and conceptually to get the students to think about their boats in
Click here to view video footage of this
project in action!
not as “artsy” as I would’ve liked. Some of that boiled down to
an aesthetic way. These became purely structural vessels and
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