Learning Goals:

1. Students will design an investigation to test three models of solar vehicles.
2. Students will justify which materials will be used in their construction.
3. Students will be able to support their design with reasoning.
4. Students will determine different methods of collecting data from their experiment relating to three types of solar boats.
5. Students will follow step-by-step instructions to build their solar boats. They will troubleshoot as necessary by making sure electricity flows into the motor to make the vehicles move by propeller or gears.
6. Students will determine different data points that are useful in determining the most effective design for a solar powered boat.
7. Students will undergo the process of redesign, noting why they made changes to particular variables on their boat and noting how these changes played out.

Handouts

• Planning An Investigation Worksheet
• Airboat Instructions
• Speedboat Instructions
• Surface Submarine Instructions

Classroom Supplies

• “Adult” scissors (to cut plastic bottles)
• Awl
• 12-13 Solar bottle boats kits (example)
• 24-26 16-18oz (reused) Plastic bottles
• 4-5 2Liter recycled bottles
• 4-5 Ziplock bags
• Sunlight or other light source
• Large tub or basin for testing leaks
• Water source

Important Links

• Lesson Plans

Next Generation Science Standards

• 4-PS3-2. Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
• 4-PS3-4. Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.
• 3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
• 3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
• 3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
• PS2-1. Apply Newton’s Third Law to design a solution to a problem involving the motion of two colliding objects.
• PS2- 2. Plan an investigation to provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object.