Fun with Speedboats!

Student Worksheet: 
Design and Testing

You are a team of engineers who have been given the challenge of developing a boat that can travel down a small canal faster than boats designed by other student "engineering" teams.  There are a few rules:

1. Your boat must touch the water at all times during its journey.
2. Boats cannot be longer than 10 inches or 25 cm.
3. Boats also cannot be wider than 3 inches or 90 mm -- but check with your teacher as the width of the canal he/she is preparing may have a different width requirement.
4. You must make your boat from scratch (no premade plastic boats allowed, unless your teacher approves).
5. The method you develop for propelling your boat has to be part of the boat, so you cannot for example toss a ball at it to make it go.

 Research/Preparation Phase
1. Review the various Student Reference Sheets.  

 Planning as a Team
Meet as a team and develop a drawing on the other side of this paper showing the design of your speed boat.  Be sure to list all the items you think you will need to build it in the box below.

Parts List:

	

 Fun with Speedboats!

Student Worksheet: 
Hull Engineering and Testing (continued)

 Construction Phase
1. Build your boat using your planned materials…you may find you need to add materials or change the design during this phase.  It is ok to trade materials with other teams, or request additional materials from the teacher.  In some situations, your team may build your boat outside of school and gather materials as needed outside the classroom.  

 Competitive Analysis Phase
1. Take a good look at all the speedboats created by other "engineering" teams in your classroom.  Notice the differences, and as a team, make predictions of the best speed you think your boat and the competition with achieve during testing.  Later, you'll use this sheet to mark down the actual results after testing.

Your team's prediction
	Team:	Team:	Team:	Team:	Team:	Team:	
Speed
(Test 1)
							
Speed
(Test 2)
							
Speed 
(Test 3)

convert to miles per hour or km per hour

 Speed Race Testing
1. Observe as your team and other teams test their prototypes in your classroom waterway.  Record your team's results in the box below, including points and observations.

Actual Results
	Team:	Team:	Team:	Team:	Team:	Team:	
Speed
(Test 1)
							
Speed
(Test 2)
							
Speed 
(Test 3)
							
      Fun with Speedboats!

Student Worksheet: Evaluation 

 Reflection
1. How did your speed boat perform compared to other teams in your classroom?

2. What do you think was the pivotal aspect of the design of the boat that helped it go the fastest?

3.  If you had to do it all over again, how would your planned design change?  Why?

4. Do you think that engineers often adapt their original plans during the manufacturing process?  Why might they?

5.  Did you find that there were many designs in your classroom that were very different and yet also very fast?  What does this tell you about engineering plans?

6.  Explain how working as team impacted (positively or negatively) your team performance on this project.

7. If you could have added a material to your boat that was unavailable, what would that have been?  Why?