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Data Gathering: How tall is your ship? How wide is your ship? What is the area of the bottom of your ship?

Use this space to record data you think is important for describing your Tall Boat.

Let’s see your second design! Upload a picture showing how you are testing your Tall Boat. Be sure your picture shows the changes you made in your boat design.

We may share your boat picture with other people if we think that they can learn from your process or your design. Your boat may be famous!!

New drawing! Engineers work and work to improve designs. Making changes to a plan is how we create the best boats! Create a new drawing that uses the lessons learned from your first tests. Please upload a picture of your NEW Tall Boat drawing here.

(For the Points Collectors: You can receive up to two more 20-point badges for your Tall Boat plans. You must go through the process 3 times to receive all 3 badges.)

After you complete this step move on to Testing Your Ship!

You can build a robotic hand using the kit provided. We have two challenges related to this building adventure:

1. Make a hand that has five moving fingers.
2. Make a robotic hand that can hold up a full water bottle (or 12-ounce can).

We love this video providing additional resources about the building and design processes:

When you build a tall boat, what data should you measure to see how tall it is? Upload a picture of your data collection (e.g., table, graph, etc.).

Challenge 5: Build a boat that can hold an empty bottle in heavy waves.

Engineers draw plans to help them think. Try to draw your boat from two different views. Upload a picture of drawings you used to plan or improve your boat.

Does your boat have a system for holding an empty water bottle? Many students have found that system is useful.

UNICEF has a wonderful program that empowers kids to end hunger around the world. The UNICEF Kid Power Band – Activity Tracker records how much students walk, dance, run, etc. As they move, students earn points, and points are converted into energy packs to help end hunger around the world. So far, students have unlocked over 11,000,000 packets of ready-to-eat therapeutic food that UNICEF delivered to hungry children around the world.

These bands can be used individually by families or could be used by classrooms. Large groups of students can collaborate their earnings to reach additional rewards.

You can learn more about the program by watching this video from UNICEF.

And, you can always read their “Kids Helping Kids Blog” to learn about the latest updates!

One product we love comes from across the pond (England to be exact). The Curiscope Virtuali-Tee Educational Augmented Reality T-Shirt Children: M (7-8) Blue comes with a free app that allows kids to see how the heart is beating. The app uses the camera feature to approximate where and how someone’s heart is beating. Then, the app renders that image in real time on your phone.

This technology allows students to look inside the human body and get a better understanding of how we work!

You can easily buy this product on Amazon and the app is a free download from any app store. You will need the t-shirt so that the app can work properly.

Check in with us if you want to dive deeper into the workings of the human body. We would love to help you explore this exciting intersection of Science and Technology!

Computers store information in a language called binary. One bit of a computer either has data or it doesn’t. If a bit is being used, we call that “1”. If a bit is not being used, we call that “0”.

This video from Code.org explains how computers use binary code to store data.

You can code information like your name in binary. You just need to use this key. The dark squares are a “1”. The blank squares are not used, so they are a “0”.

Machine code reads the binary language. People write machine code to make computers run. These people make it easier for programmers to write in easier languages like <b>HTML</b>!

Building a tower is a great way to explore strong shapes. People that design tall buildings are called architects. They make plans, build a model, and test it. You can be architect too!

This video shows why triangles are a good shape to use when building a tall tower.

Our tower kits have 20 straws and a fresh roll of tape. Our resident tower architect, Julia, describes how she used the kit:

The scotch tape binds the straws together. It takes some practice, and it gets easier the more you do it.

My advice: think about the number of straws you have while planning your design. You can even draw your plan before you begin!

Something that worked well in the design was constructing triangle formations for stability. Triangles prevent the tower from twisting. I even put triangles in the base of the tower! I planned my tower with triangles before starting. Even with my well-drawn plan, I had to improve (make it up as I went along) during construction.

I started with a basic plan of what I wanted to do. Then, I would see the way the tower started leaning. I would use this data to add more support, and adjust as I went along!

When I did not have a plan, I needed a couple straws at the end but did not have any. So, I removed straws from one part of my tower. It worked ok, but I would have been happier with the tower if I drew a plan ahead of time.

Another thing to keep in mind: be extra careful around the corners when taping together straws. The flat tape and round straws don’t naturally get along! It can be unsatisfying how its impossible to have the corners of two straws meet perfectly. The tape prefers a flat, straight surface, but eventually works with the round straws.

My building challenges were always with the joints. When the joints were wobbly, the tower tried to fall over. Taking it slow and placing the tape carefully will help.

You can always take the tower apart and start again. Keep trying drawing, building and testing new designs!

– Julia, Resident Tower Architect

This video from PBS explains how towers are built.

We use straws and tape to build our towers, but you can also use cups. This video explains some of the problems and solutions when building with cups.

Challenges from our Bridge and Tower learning adventure:

• Challenge 14: Build the tallest tower possible with 20 straws and tape.
• Challenge 15: Build one tower for a bridge.
• Challenge 19: Building a tall bridge (requires two towers)
• Challenge 21: Building a long bridge
  

Click here to show off a picture of your design!