One of the more popular projects at Highland School every spring is the sixth grade Truss Bridges with students competing to see whose bridge can hold the most weight. The project shows what the students have learned about engineering as part of their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) curriculum throughout the year. Beginning last year, students in Dan Halland’s class also began using what they’ve learned in class to construct aluminum foil boats as part of learning about density, buoyancy and other topics explained Halland. “It’s the second year in a row we’ve been doing it as a STEM activity with science,” said Halland. “It’s incorporating things that we’re learning about – density, gravity, surface area, pressure, buoyancy, and volume. It’s a fun project for the kids to be able to discover all of these in putting together a fun activity.”
The assignment calls for the students to construct a boat that can hold at least two pennies (5 grams) before sinking. However, this year’s class is already off to a fantastic start as Gunnar Groven constructed a boat that held 403 pennies which is over 1,000 grams or about 2.2 pounds said Halland. “I know I brought the presentation to the School Board last year as they inquired what I was doing for science at the time,” said Halland. “It’s kind of amazing. These kids get a 12-inch by 12-inch sheet of aluminum foil and construct a boat. It weighs 5.8 grams and to be able to hold 403 pennies as one of my students did, Gunnar Groven, that’s 2.2 pounds, over 1,000 grams. It’s quite remarkable and to see their eyes get big discovering that they have created something that has surpassed what their prediction of holding weight would be. That’s the learning right there.”
Halland says that finding activities to heighten learning requires a lot of research and is sometimes challenging. “To find activities that are going to heighten their learning is sometimes a challenge,” said Halland. “And I have to research a lot online. We are still continuing this, so there could be someone who has a boat who holds more. I just started today, so this is going to be a weeklong thing. I want to complete this by the time we leave for vacation.”
Halland said he’ll pass along updates of any other boats that reach impressive totals before they sink throughout the week.
