Sail Away

Student Worksheet: 
Build Your Own Watercraft

 Engineering Teamwork and Planning

You are a team of marine engineers given the challenge of designing a sailboat using everyday materials that can hold a set weight and move 4 feet along a classroom waterway harnessing wind energy from a fan.

 Planning and Design Phase

Each team has been provided with a set of materials.  Review these as a group and draw your plan for a boat design in the box below.  Think about how the weight your boat must carry should be distributed in the boat for stability during motion.  Also think about what your sail material will be and how it will be attached to the boat securely.

	

      Sail Away

Student Worksheet: 
Build Your Own Watercraft (continued)

 Construction Phase

As a team, build your boat, and then complete the questions below:

1.  How similar was your design to the actual boat you built.  

2. If you found you needed to make changes during the construction phase, describe why you made revisions.

3. Did you find you needed to add extra materials to your boat during the construction phase?  If so, what parts did you need to add?

 Testing Phase

Your teacher has created a waterway for testing your watercraft.  Test your boat!  If you find your sail or boat design doesn't work the first time, you'll have an opportunity to redesign your boat and try again. Don't worry if it fails the first time. Part of engineering is testing and designing products until the optimal design is achieved. 

      Sail Away

Student Worksheet: Evaluation

 Evaluation Phase
Answer the following questions to summarize your experience with the Sail Away activity.  Work in teams to come up with group opinions.

1.  Were you able to create a boat that could hold weight, catch the wind, and travel four feet?

2.  If yes, did you need to rework your boat during the testing process?  What did you need to change about your boat to make it meet the challenge?

3. Do you think your design could scale upward and work as a full size sailboat?  Why or why not?

4.  What aspects of other team's boats did you find interesting?  Where there aspects of other designs you wish you had incorporated into your own team's boat?

5. How different were all the final boats?  What did that tell you about problem solving?

6. If you had a chance to do this project again, what would your team have done differently?

7.  Do you think you would have been able to create a successful boat if you had not been working in a group?  What did the group interaction add to the design and problem solving process?

 Presentation
As a group, make a presentation to the class about what you learned during this activity.