What Ever Floats Your Boat
“What Ever Floats Your Boat” is a multi-day high school cooperative group project. Students integrate algebra, geometry, and physic concepts as they design, construct and christen their boat, made only with cardboard and duct tape. The finale is a trip to the swimming pool to test whether their design will hold one group member for a trip across the width of the pool.
TimeLine:
Day 1 How Fast does Flu Spread (Linear)
Day 2 Whatever Floats Your Boat Buoyancy (Quadratic)
Day 3 Whatever Floats your Boat Building a Penny Canoe (Data Collecting)
Day 4 Radioactive Decay: A sweet Simulation of a Half-Life (Exponential)
Day 5 Frosty the Snowman meets His Demise: An Analogy to Carbon Dating (Linear)
Day 6 Boat Design (Scale Factor)
Day 7 Boat Building Boats
Day 8 Calculating weight of boat and cargo. (Surface Area & Buoyancy)
Day 9 Christening boats
Logistics:
The first week is set up in stations that student groups rotate through, one station per day.
This scheduling is a logic problem and the hardest part of the planning and will vary every year depending on class sizes.
Why Use Stations to Teach Algebra?
· Stations allow for more activities with fewer supplies.
· Stations allow students to review more skills with in a short period of time.
Reasons Stations may Not be for You:
· You are not a person to plan ahead.
· You’re not a person that can multi-task easily.
· You’re a person who does not move.
Relevant Websites:
This unit was adapted from www.mathprojects.com. Other contributing websites are listed below: