Tag: sails

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Home #Makerspace: DIY Drain Pipe Regatta (or Rain Gutter Regatta)

woodshopcowboy

On a hot summer day, nothing beats a cool, breezy scientific adventure.  The Drain Pipe Regatta is a great investment for a classroom or backyard exploring space, as it helps teach the basics of fluid dynamics, buoyancy, motion and transfer of power.  Connections to the great sailing ages in history, from the Polynesians exploring the Pacific, to Columbus’s crossing of the Atlantic, to the great whalers and galleons of Napoleonic Europe abound.  This project is the base for a great mix of artistic creativity and scientific inquiry.Drain Pipe Regatta

Boats can be made with nearly any craft material.  I have made origami boat challenges, foam board & skewer boats and water bottle boats.  Tweaks can be made with each regatta to reflect learning goals, materials or kids interests.  The Cub Scouts of America hold a raingutter regatta every year.  Scouts design small sail boats and race them down a 10 foot section of rain gutter.

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Pirate-themed get-togethers optional.

Continue reading “Home #Makerspace: DIY Drain Pipe Regatta (or Rain Gutter Regatta)”

Classroom Project, Teacher Tip, This Week In the Classroom2 Comments

If I Had a Boat (Sailing Curriculum Unit)

woodshopcowboy

In my middle school/junior high class, we’ve been exploring the relationship between sails, force, momentum, foam boats and area.  I’ve used the unit to assess the graphing labs we conducted last quarter and introduce non-linear graphs. I began the unit by asking students to research old sailing boats and draw conclusions from the material they gathered.  The students completed a K-W-L chart.  I then introduced the question: what is the most efficient sail? After some fits and starts (we have been doing some standardized testing practice to get ready for this week’s Stanford tests) we realized we needed to ask … Continue reading If I Had a Boat (Sailing Curriculum Unit)