STEM Activity

To finish out a week of science, we wanted to do something exciting together, so we participated in a STEM activity. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. All of the subjects involved in STEM are extremely important for students so that they may begin to solve problems while experimenting with these subjects. The STEM activity which we participated in was in building a boat that could hold weight without sinking. Students were given many materials such as plates, straws, cups, tape, etc. to build their "unsinkable ships" with.

Working in groups of three, students built these boats while thinking of ways in which they could construct their boat so that it wouldn't sink. Students were told before building their boats that their boats would actually be placed in a bowl of water to test how well they floated. The boats would also be tested on how well they would hold up under weight...the weight of pennies. Students made sure while building their boats that the boats would also be able to hold this weight while floating on the water.

Once time was up, the groups came up one by one and placed their boats in the bucket of water. I slowly placed pennies one by one on their boats to see how many pennies each boat would hold before sinking. The winning boat held 21 pennies!

I was extremely impressed with how well students constructed their boats, thinking about how they would need to build their boat so that it would float under the weight of the pennies!