Mission 27
The Boat Designer
It is Boat Day at the pond, and every boat has a job: a raft for the ducklings, a tin that carries marbles, a bottle raft for the picnic, a card hull loaded with weights, a ferry for the island. Try things in the water, count, measure, and find the shape that carries the load. Then launch it.
- 5 parts
- 14 to 20 minutes
- Grades 6 to 8
Who is playing?
Each age gets its own version of the story. Any of them is fine to play.
Grades 6 to 8
The Island Ferry
The job: Find out why the old ferry leaned, then design one that carries 24 tubs of soil safely, stays upright and fits the channel and the budget.
- Minnow by the Numbers With a PlayOwl plan
- The Tub Test With a PlayOwl plan
- Five Plans With a PlayOwl plan
- Through the Reeds With a PlayOwl plan
- Launch Day With a PlayOwl plan
For grown-ups: what this mission practices
Sorting by trying, counting and comparing test results, liters and kilograms, multiplying length, width and depth, and working inside a limit of material and coins. The floating model is simplified and stated: a boat floats while it and its load weigh no more than the water its hull can push aside. Older children predict, test, revise a design and justify the change.
- Ages
- Five versions, from Preschool to Grade 8. They are different designs, not the same task with other numbers.
- How it is checked
- Every answer is checked by rules the child can see at work on the screen. Any answer that meets them is right.
- Help
- Olly can read any line aloud, give a hint that points at where to look, or show one way. A report says where help was used.
- Time
- Nothing is timed. A part takes a few minutes and progress is saved after each one for a signed-in child.