STEM Sailboat Challenge Math and Engineering Activity

Lesson Overview

The Sailboat STEM activity is a great way to incorporate the engineering design process into your classroom or afterschool program! Many are familiar with the boat buoyancy challenge, and this takes it one step further by adding a sail! Now students must build a boat to hold a specific weight as well as incorporate aerodynamic principals to make it move.

This hands-on activity is an engaging design challenge that allows students to work in teams, apply the engineering design process, and connect math topics to real-world applications. As a student-driven assignment, the purpose of the teacher is to act as a facilitator. You will provide the structure to the project, but students will take an active role in designing and building their sailboats. Our students have loved this activity, and we know yours will too!

Engineering Challenge: Students use the engineering design process to design and build a sailboat to carry a mass across a set distance. Students will also learn about buoyancy and surface area as well as the forces acting on the boat.

As with many STEM activities that are student-driven, this challenge can be tailored to students of various skill levels and abilities. We have used this challenge from elementary through high school levels with great success.

Included in this product:

• Detailed teachers guide with links to resources

• Photos of student examples

• Instructional video with real-world connections

• Teacher slides

• Student handouts to guide them through the design process

• Editable Google Slides STEM journals

• STEM Career Connection on Marine Engineering & Naval Architecture

• Student recording sheet for each step of the process

• Math connection problems including angles, ratios, geometry, and graphing

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