P5 have been learning all about The Titanic and exploring why some objects float while others sink. To begin, the class experimented with a ball of playdough. When it was rolled tightly into a ball, it sank straight to the bottom. But when the children reshaped it into a boat, it floated! This helped everyone understand that the shape of an object can change how the water pushes up against it. We talked about how floating happens when the upward thrust of the water is equal to the weight of the object.
The children then became engineers and designed their own tinfoil boats. They tested how well their boats floated and carefully added coins to see how much weight each one could hold before sinking. There was lots of excitement as the children predicted, tested, and compared their results. The class record was an incredible 58 coins!
