STEM Challenge: Garbage Barge
​ 2nd Grade

Lake Lanier Boats has hired you to solve their problem. They have to haul garbage down Lake Lanier. They don't know what type of boat to use that will old the most garbage. 

They hired you to solve their problem.

What do I do?

  1. If you can, watch the BrainPop, Jr. video to figure out the design steps.
  2. Watch the Story about the Garbage Barge.
  3. Watch the Float vs Sink video.
  4. Draw 2 of your ideas of boats.
  5. Put a check mark next to the idea drawing you like best. 
  6. Build 1 boat. Test it by gently placing pennies, paperclips, or marbles into the boat. Your boat should sink!  How many did your boat hold?
  7. Build a better boat. Make the boat different.
  8. Test it with pennies, paperclips, marbles. How many did your boat hold?
  9. Keep improving your boats.  (Repeat steps 5 - 9)
  10. Use the chart below to keep track of your boats. Add as many rows as you want.

Watch BrainPopJr. to review the STEM Engineering Design Process Steps

BrainPop, Jr. "Engineering Design Process" Video
School Password required. 

Watch "Here Comes the Garbage Barge!"


​What is the problem?

A barge is a type of boat. Barges are slow boats. Barges hold a lot of stuff. 

Picture
Click Barge image to see more barge images.
Picture
Click Barge image to see more barge images.
Picture
News Anchor Peter Jennings for PBS News reports on the real life Garbage Barge video - YouTube (10:55).

​Let's research floating boats by watching a couple of video clips and looking at some pictures of boats and barges.

Watch FLOAT A BOAT Part 1
(0:00 to 1:10) 

Watch FLOAT A BOAT Part 2
(2:31 to end) 
Picture
Link to article with pictures and explanations of boat bottoms.

If you need a little more research...

Draw your Ideas....

Use Paper, Class Dojo or Flipgrid to draw.

Now Build.  Record your builds and tests and improvements in Flipgrid.

Test Your builds   & Improve the next boat 

Get mom, dad or the adult you live with to help you fill a sink (sink, tub, bucket, large bowl) with about 2 inches of water and test each of your boats. You can make improvements to help the boats float, after you sunk each one. Be sure to tell us about how your improvements worked out.
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