STEM Sailboat Challenge Math & Engineering Activity
A family of polar bears need your help! Due to climate change, their sea ice home is melting, and we need to move the family to a new location. Use the engineering design process to design and build a boat to carry the polar bears to a new home.
Grades: 5th - 9th; Homeschool
Teaching Duration: 3 hours
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lesson overview
Save the Polar Bears: Sailboat Winter STEM Engineering Design Challenge with Math Extensions
Includes an editable STEM journals, teacher slides, and instructional video.
A family of polar bears need your help! Due to climate change, their sea ice home is melting, and we need to move the family to a new location. Use the engineering design process to design and build a boat to carry the polar bears to a new home.
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 (polar bears) 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.
Included in this product:
Detailed teacher guide with links to resources
Photos of student examples
Instructional Video
Teacher Slides
Student handouts to guide them through the design process
Editable Google Slides STEM journal for distance learning
STEM Career Connection on Marine Engineering & Naval Architecture
STEM Real-World Connection on polar bears and Arctic Sea loss
Student recording sheet for each step of the process
Math connection problems including angles, ratios, geometry, and graphing
Looking for more STEM lessons? Find the Vivify resource guide here: bit.ly/VivifyResourceGuide
