Science & Engineering Practices Begin on Day One

Build a Boat. Hope it Floats!

In years past, I've always spent the first day getting to know the kids, and telling them a bit about my class. I don't think this is a bad thing, but can you imagine sitting through that for class after class on the first day of the new routine? I wouldn't like it either. At the AMTA Modeling training I attended this summer, the very first activity we did was build a boat. This isn't a new idea, as there are several teachers out there that start day one with an engineering challenge. What's special about this boat project is all of the conversations that can branch off from it. Here's the outline of the activity:

• the students build a boat no larger than 4cm x 6cm x 10cm in a group of 2 or 3 in 15 minutes
• the students can use whatever materials are available
• each material has a price per size
• the challenge is to see how many pennies the boat can hold (note: I live in a country where pennies are not an easy find, so we used washers instead) :)
• the best boat is the one that has the lowest cost to pennies ratio

I took this idea, matched it to the NGSS Science Practices, and determined how much of it I could get through in 73 minutes (the amount of time I have with each class in the first week). I called up my teaching and learning coach and we got to work. Here's how it ended up working out:

Day 1: 45 minutes
Activity	Time	Notes	Connection to NGSS
Intro: Build a Boat, Hope it Floats	3 minutes	Explain all criteria and constraints of the design project. (projected on board)	SEP1: Asking Questions & Defining Problems
Individual Brainstorm	1 minute	All students have a sticky note on their desk where they will come up with an idea for building the boat. They can draw, write, calculate...whatever they want. They can’t talk to each other yet.	SEP1: Asking Questions & Defining Problems
Group Brainstorm (Grounding Activity)	4 minutes	In the grounding activity, one person shares his/her ideas at a time. The person that starts is the person that summarizes all of the ideas before they start modeling. I normally pick a random characteristic to determine the person who goes first (i.e. the one with the shortest hair, longest commute to school, the farthest class before chemistry). Each person has 30 seconds to share his/her idea. Once they have summarized, they sketch a model of the boat they are going to want to make on a whiteboard.	SEP1: Asking Questions & Defining Problems SEP2: Developing Models
Build a Boat!	12 minutes	Once their planning time is up, they are going to try to build their boat. I advise them to pick jobs for each person in the group, and that the most important part is that all materials are measured. This can end up being a disaster with the stress of the time crunch, so having someone in charge of that is a good idea.	SEP3: Conducting Investigations
Test Boats	10 minutes	The students will test their own boats, and two groups will go at a time. I have a clear plastic container set up in the middle lab bench where all of the groups can watch the tests. I have to give my students guidelines that I tend to accumulate throughout the day. One major one is that they have to pause between pennies. They like to start putting them on really fast when they see that it’s about to sink. After the first two groups, we have a conversation about which number we want to record - the one that made the boat sink, or the amount that allowed the boat to float. I have the students explain why they made this decision. Normally someone says “I don’t want to be on the boat that the extra person got on that made it sink.” This normally convinces the class that we are only counting pennies the boat can hold.	SEP3: Conducting Investigations
Calculations & Reflection	10 minutes	The students will need to calculate the individual costs, total cost, and score. They will also answer reflection questions as a group. Their answers will be written on whiteboards to share out with the class next session. I have a shortage of whiteboards, so I asked the groups to write this on a piece of paper and immediately come in next class and write it on a whiteboard.	SEP4: Analyzing Data SEP5: Using Mathematics & Computational Thinking SEP6: Constructing Explanations & Designing Solutions
Day 2: 28 minutes
Prepare for Presentations	5 minutes	Pick up from last class on whiteboards. Make sure all parts are included.
Share Out	10 min	Gallery walk to see the layout and scores. Informal presentations to share reflections pieces. Before the students walk around, I ask them to focus on the clarity of the whiteboards and breakdown of cost. We talk about the importance of communicating our results out to a scientific community in a clear and concise manner. After the gallery walk, I ask the students to point out good qualities of different boards. They quickly realize that the more organized boards are easier to read. During the presentations, this is where each individual finally introduces him/herself to the class. From there, I only tell the people who are comfortable speaking to tell us about their project. They have 60 seconds.	SEP6: Constructing Explanations & Designing Solutions SEP7: Communicating Information
Reflection	10 min	Described in detail below

The reflection piece I think is the culminating reason why I chose to do this activity. I wanted the kids to get an idea of things that made them successful in the activity, and what they did that maybe they should do better with future investigations. Something I've started this year is instead of calling our class a chemistry class, I've called it our scientific community (so if I say this in future posts, you'll know what I'm talking about). Everything we do this year is going to need to benefit our scientific community, and we're going to need to work together to advance as much as possible this year. So with that in mind, I posed the following question:

"“In this boat activity, what qualities did your group have, or what strategies did your group use that you could possibly use the rest of the year in chemistry to help you be successful?”

From there, this is how I walked them through it:

Individual Reflection	1 min	Individually, answer the question: “In this boat activity, what qualities did your group have, or what strategies did your group use that you could possibly use the rest of the year in chemistry to help you be successful?”
Group Reflection	4 min	Share with your group using the grounding activity, and consolidate your list into the top five qualities/strategies. Log in to Google Classroom, find your first assignment, and put your group’s list on this document. This is the first time they’re logging in, so I’m multi-tasking in allowing them to navigate the page and see how to collaborate with an entire scientific community on a live document.
Class Reflection	5 min	Using the “Spend a Buck” method the students vote on the qualities he/she thinks are the most important for this class. I cut sticky notes into strips and gave each student 10 strips. They were able to spend their buck in "dimes". They could spend them all on one or two things on the list, or they could spread them out evenly, but everyone was able to spend a buck. I qualitatively look at the board to see the obvious ones that people voted for and briefly discuss them before the class ends. I will consolidate the lists of all of my scientific communities into one list. This list will be displayed on a bulletin board for the rest of the year.

Every single group wanted to come back and build a better boat, and I think that's so powerful, but that's not the reason I had them build the boat. I really feel like this lesson allowed me to introduce the scientific practices without forcing them. The next week, we dove in more and were deliberate about introducing them one by one. I have them displayed in my classroom in the order that we will move through them in every unit. In my next lesson post, I'll share with you how we are moving through it in our first unit (HS-PS 1-3). For those of you who are unaware of the order that these should be taught in, this is it:

Always start with a phenomenon for the students to question.

1. Asking Questions & Defining Problems
2. Developing & Using Models
3. Planning & Carrying Out Investigations
4. Analyzing & Interpreting Data
5. Using Mathematics & Computational Thinking
6. Constructing Explanations & Designing Solutions
7. Engaging in Argument from Evidence
8. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Some of the conversations that can be had with this activity are:

• significant figures
• importance of revision and retesting
• why we plan ahead

What are some other conversations you've had with students revolving around the boat activity or something similar?