Washington Science Unit Involves Boat Building

Washington Primary School second graders had fun creating model boats capable of floating during a science unit titled The Nature of Matter. The youngsters proudly posed for photos with what they were able to build with their own two hands and lots of ingenuity.

“The purpose of this project is for the students to create a boat that will float and move in water while using materials that have been previously experimented with,” explained Vanessa Ulloa, a Washington School second grade dual language teacher. “This project took three class periods. The first day the students got into groups of three and drew three different sketches of boats thinking of which materials to use to build their boat. We had already explored the materials and their properties throughout the unit during lessons 1-9.”

The following day during a technology period class, the youngsters were able to build one of each group’s boats from their sketches and then test it to determine “if it is capable of floating and carrying George and five cargo blocks across,” Ms. Ulloa said.

To understand the concept of buoyancy and what allows a boat to float, the Washington second graders had to first grasp some essentials about matter. For example, all matter is comprised of particles too small to seen with a human eye. These particle are 100,000 times smaller than even the width of a human hair. Depending on certain conditions, for example, those of temperature and pressure, it’s possible to change the state of matter from one form to another; for example, from gas to liquid.

The concepts are a little “heady,” especially for second graders, but Ms. Ulloa did her best to teach them in an understandable way and the Washington second graders were attentive and enthusiastic and saw first hand when they put their boats in the water and watched them float.