Designing Floating Boats

Last week's experiments at the water table have inspired in our children a great interest in what floats and sinks. This creates endless possibilities for inquiry at our science and water tables. From their experiments last week the children realized that items made of wood, paper and plastic were more likely to float than metal items. When engaging children in the planning stage of today's experiment they determined they needed paper, plastic, and wood for their boats. We helped them to gather building and art materials that could be used in their boats.

The children design and build their boats:

The children test their inventions to see if they float or sink: