Lesson

Title/Focus

Who Sank the Boat?

Date

Subject/Gra
de Level

Science Grade 2

Time
Duratio
n

60 minutes

Unit

Topic B: Buoyancy and Boats

Teacher

Miss Rosentreter

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General
Learning
Outcomes:
Specific
Learning
Outcomes:

(2-7) Construct objects that will float on and move through water, and evaluate
various designs for watercrafts.
(3) Assemble materials so they will float, carry a load and be stable in water.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will:
1. Assemble tin foil to float and carry a load across a tub.
2. Determine characteristics of a successful boat by using marbles to sink the boat.
3. Explain how different characteristics such as shape and weight affect the floatability of the
boat.
4. Explore the positioning of a load and how it affects the floatability of the boat.

ASSESSMENTS
Observations:

Key Questions:

Products/Performan
ces:

Make sure the students are on task and using their skills and knowledge
to make a boat float or sink. They will explore how a boat can be created
with different materials and be able to carry a load. I will make sure that
the students are thinking about what can make their boat carry more
loads instead of just trying to sink the boat. The students need to think
about shape and weight in order to make the load on the boat the biggest
it can be. They need to think about positioning their marbles in their boat
so that it will not sink.
What makes a boat sink or float? How can the positioning of the
load affect how well the boat floats? How does shape, weight,
and positioning of the load affect the boat?
Students will make a boat and try to sink it using marbles. They
will manipulate the boat to make it hold more. The objective of
this performance is to make a boat that will hold the most load
considering shape, weight, and positioning of the load.

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

Program of Studies (Science)
Buoyancy and Boats Grade 2
Who Sank the Boat? By Pamela Allen

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

Who Sank the Boat? By Pamela Allen

Big Tub
Tin Foil
Marbles
Water
Tape
Smart Board

PROCEDURE
Attention Grabber
Assessment of Prior
Knowledge
Expectations for
Learning and
Behaviour

Introduction
So who owns a boat?
Alright remember on Friday when we made those boats out of
plasticine? Well today we are using something different to
make a boat.
Students need to participate with each other as well as a class.
They will be attentive with the reading as well as the writing.
When dealing with the experiment we need to keep the area
clean as well as dry as possible. We will need to keep the place

Time
1 minute

Advance
Organizer/Agenda
Transition to Body
Learning Activity
#1

Assessments/
Differentiation:

Learning Activity
#2

Assessments/
Differentiation

Learning Activity
#3

dry so that we dont have a lot of mess to clean up before

social studies.
1. Read Who Sank the Boat? By Pamela Allen
2. Talk about the book
3. Boat Experiment
4. Talk about the Experiment
Can every one come to the back of the classroom where we
will read a book about boats!
Body
I will be reading Who Sank the Boat? By Pamela Allen. The
book is about a cow, a donkey, a sheep, a pig, and a tiny little
mouse that all try to fit into the boat. In the book it asks who
do you think sank the boat? I will allow students to give
guesses as to who sank the boat throughout the book when the
phrase comes up. The students will be asked to come to the
back of the room where they will sit on the ground and listen to
the book. I will ask, Did the cow sink the boat? Did the little
tiny mouse sink the boat?. They can give me a prediction to
what they think will happen. They should be able to use their
knowledge from the previous science class to figure out the
ending of the story.
This is just a fun way for the students to come together and
listen to a story about a boat that sinks. It also asks the
question who sank the boat which will get the students to think
about the causes of the boat sinking. The students also are
using their knowledge from last class to make their predictions
for the book. This is exactly what the students will be exploring
in the next part of the lesson.
In their writing books I want them to answer the question: Who
do you think sank the boat? And give a reason why they think
it sank. After they have written their answer we will discuss as
a class who they think sank the boat. We will write every ones
predictions on the board in a smart board chart. After we have
done this we will then explore what makes objects float or sink.
It was not just one animal that sank the boat it was all of the
animals that sank the boat because it was too much weight for
the boat to hold. The students should be able to figure that out.
In this activity students are able to investigate what causes
objects to float or sink. They are able to show me as the
teacher if they understand the concepts of shape, weight and
the materials that were used. This allows for students to gather
information and make a statement about the boat sinking
using weight, shape, and the materials that were used for the
boat.
In this last activity the students are going to use tin foil to
make a boat that floats on water. They will have to use their
knowledge of shape to construct a boat that will float. After
they have constructed a boat out of tin foil that can float they
will test it in the big tub. If the boat floats then the students will
be allowed to put in marbles (in the middle) to see how many
marbles it can hold before it sinks. After they have figured out
how many marbles it can hold before it sinks they can start
exploring about the placing of the boat. Start by placing the
marbles on one side of the boat. What happens to the boat?
Can it hold more marbles then before.
They can experiment with a bigger boat or a smaller boat by
constructing the boat and doing the experiment over. Does this
make a difference? I will let the students explore the concepts

1 minute
1 minute
Time

6 minutes
Includes
getting
ready for
reading

5 minutes

Explanatio
n: 5
minutes
Execution:
35
minutes

Assessments/
Differentiation

Assessment of
Learning:

Feedback From
Students:
Transition To Next
Lesson
Sponge
Activity/Activities

of shape and weight.

In this activity it allows the students to explore the concepts of
shape and weight. It allows for students to show me how they
manipulate the boat so that it can hold more weight or by
placing the weight in a different spot can affect how it floats. It
also allows the students to explore the concepts hands on.
They will have a sheet that contains the following questions:
How many marbles could the boat hold before it sank? What
happened to the boat when the marbles were placed in a
different spot? What happened when you made the boat
bigger? Did the boat hold more marbles?
Closure
I am going to get the students to tell me about their
experience with the experiment. What they need? What they
noticed? What they found out? By doing this I will pick students
using the popsicle sticks so that each students has an equal
chance to get chosen. I can allow the students to make
suggestions to what could make a boat float better. I will have
them write down what they learned in this class for an exit slip
in their science duo tang. It is basically a way for students to
tell me their findings. This will help in creating a boat later on
in the unit.
The students will answer questions and ask questions. This is
part of the exit slip where the students can tell me in writing
what they found out about weight and shape today.
Next class we will try to make objects that floats sink and
objects that sink float.

Included
with the
activity

Time

5 minutes

Part of
above

If the students have time after doing the third activity they can start by
making another boat bigger or smaller and seeing if they makes a
difference.

Reflections from the

lesson

Name:_________________________________
Who do you think sank the boat?

WHY?

Experiment!
How many marbles were in the boat before it sank?

What happened to the boat when the marbles were moved to a new location?
4

More Experiment!
What happened to the boat when it was made bigger?

Did the boat hold more marbles when the boat was bigger?

What happened to the boat when it was made smaller?

Did the boat hold more marbles when the boat was smaller?
5