⛵ Foil boat shapes: the whole packet

⛵ Foil boat shapes · 1st–5th grade · 1 day of testing · free · 45 minutes a sitting

My days, if the fair is 14 days away

Count back from your fair day and write in each date. Fewer days than this? The jobs share days, in this order; nothing is skipped.

Dates from my teacher

• My question is due
• Testing starts
• My results table and graph are due
• My board is due

In this packet

1. 🗓️ My project plan
2. 💭 My hypothesis
3. 🧺 Change, measure, keep the same
4. 🪜 My steps
5. 📊 My results
6. 📓 My logbook
7. ✅ My conclusion
8. ✂️ Board titles to cut out
9. 🏅 The judge's questions and my certificate

If I change the shape of the boat, then how many pennies it carries before it sinks will ________________, because _____________________________________________

What I think will happen, in my own words:

3 levels × 3 tries at each = 9 tries in all. If anything you keep the same changes, you won't know which change made the difference.

What I need

• 🥈 Foil: 3 squares, 20 cm across
• 🪙 Pennies: about 100
• 🛁 A tub of water
• 📏 A ruler

Be safe: 👶 Small parts · 💧 Water · 🧽 A bit messy

1. Tear three squares of foil, all 20 cm across.
2. Fold one into a flat raft with its edges turned up a little.
3. Fold one into a square box and one into a round bowl.
4. Float the raft and add pennies one at a time.
5. Count the pennies when water comes in, and write it down.
6. Dry the foil, shape it again and test it two more times.
7. Do three tests with the box and three with the bowl.
8. Draw a bar for each boat. Which carried the most?

Write each number in your results table the moment you measure it.

I changed: Boat shape   I measured: how many pennies it carries before it sinks (pennies)

MY GRAPH (a bar graph: boat shape along the bottom, pennies up the side)

What I noticed: ______________________________________________

Write something every day you work on it, even the days you only gather things. More days? The three-page logbook prints from peabody.kids/science-fair/templates/logbook.

My hypothesis was ☐ right ☐ partly right ☐ not right.

I know because my numbers show:

What surprised me, or what might have gone wrong (7th and up):

Next time I would test:

Idea: Change a second thing: make each shape with low sides and with high sides, and test all six.

1. What made you want to ask this question? Say something like: I wanted to know: which boat shape carries the most pennies?
2. What did you think would happen, and why? Say something like: I thought changing the shape of the boat would change how many pennies it carries before it sinks, and I wrote down why.
3. What did you change, and what did you measure? Say something like: I changed the shape of the boat (Flat raft, Square box, Round bowl) and measured how many pennies it carries before it sinks in pennies.
4. What did you keep the same, and why does that matter? Say something like: I kept the same size of foil and adding pennies one at a time the same, so only the shape of the boat was different.
5. How many times did you test it? Say something like: 3 times at each of my 3 levels, and I found the middle number.
6. What did you find out? Show me in your numbers. Say something like: Look at my table: Flat raft and Round bowl gave different numbers, and here's the pattern.
7. Was your hypothesis right? How do you know? Say something like: My numbers show whether I was right, partly right or not, and I can show you where.
8. Did anything go wrong, or surprise you? Say something like: One try was odd, so I did it again and wrote it in my logbook.
9. If you did it again, what would you change or test next? Say something like: I'd change a second thing: make each shape with low sides and with high sides, and test all six.