Penny Pontoon Boat

thingiverse

This boat is a work in progress, but the basic concept focuses on using pennies and the scientific method to teach about buoyancy. Pennies are often used in science buoyancy lessons because they are cheap and easy for kids to work with. The pontoons on this boat hold the pennies so that students can measure the effect on the boat. On the ends of the pontoons on one side are labels to help with measuring the degree of tilt to one side (180 & 360 degrees), and on the other side of the pontoons are labels to help with measuring depth (1 & 2 cm). What happens when more pennies are added? What about to one side or the other? Students make a prediction, isolate a variable, measure their results (data), and come to a conclusion.