Penny Boat Challenge

How many pennies can your boat hold before it sinks? The Penny Boat Challenge is a fun and simple way to test your engineering skills and have a blast at the same time.

Activity of the Day

Penny Boat Challenge 

Design and build a boat that can hold the most pennies

Materials Needed

• Aluminum foil

• Pennies

• A container filled with water (like a tub or large bowl)

💡 Inspiration

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Steps to Create Your Penny Boat

1. Design the Boat Start with a piece of aluminum foil and shape it into a boat. Make sure it has enough surface area to hold weight.

2. Test the Boat Place your boat in the container of water to see if it floats. Adjust the design if needed.

3. Add the Pennies Gently add pennies one at a time to your boat. Count how many pennies it can hold before it starts to sink.

4. Experiment and Improve Try out different boat designs and see which one can hold the most pennies. Discuss what makes some designs better than others.

Pro Tips

• Use different materials like paper or plastic wrap to see which works best.

• Turn it into a friendly competition to see whose boat can hold the most pennies.

• Encourage kids to draw their boat designs and predict how many pennies each can hold.

Why This is a Hit with Kids

Building and testing their own boats is exciting and hands-on. Kids love the challenge of seeing how many pennies their boat can carry and tweaking their designs to improve.

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