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    Home » Early Years Science » Recycled Boats – Sink or Float

    Recycled Boats – Sink or Float

    September 16, 2019 By Emma Vanstone 1 Comment

    Recycled boats are fun to make a great for exploring the concept of buoyancy or for little ones just very basic sink or float activity.

    A sink or float experiment makes a great first science activity for preschoolers ( always watch them carefully around water ) and a fun first attempt at making a prediction or hypothesis for older children.

    If you want to structure the activity like a real experiment you can also introduce the concept of variables where you only change one variable for each test. For example, use the same boat, but change the object inside. You can then follow that by using the same object but different boats and record the results.

    recycled boats for a preschool sink or float activity

    What you need to make a recycled boat

    Empty containers

    Plasticine

    Old magazines or newspaper

    Straws

    Double sided tape

    Large container filled with water for testing

    Recycled boats made with containers for a preschool STEM Challenge

    How to make a recycled boat

    This bit is up to you! We made our recycled boats very basic, but you could make yours as fancy or simple as you want.

    Red Ted Art has lots more homemade boat inspiration too!

    Preschool floating and sinking science project

    For younger children start by asking them to test different objects to see if they sink or float. Once they’ve tried a few ask them to predict whether the next one will sink or float. Empty ( and full ) water bottles, large stones, plastic or metal toys and pine cones are good things to start with.

    The next challenge is to try to find a way to make an object that sank, float. One way to do this is to place it in a boat. Plasticine boats, aluminium foil boats or recycled boats like we made should work perfectly.

    Small boats made from recycled materials

    We had some lemons hanging around so made some lemon boats too, you can also make boats from melon, oranges, limes and other fruits with a thick skin. They float because the skin is full or air bubbles, which reduces the density.

    Recycled Boats - fun first preschool science project - sink or float activity #preschoolscience #scienceforkids #easyscienceforkids #simplescience

    Sink or Float – explore further

    Find out how to make a lemon sink and why lemons float with this activity.

    We love to theme our activities. Sink or float pirate style is always popular.

    Keep it simple with a LEGO sink or float activity.

    For older children discover why some objects float and some sink and find out how to make a ball that sinks, float!

    For a slightly different sink or float experiment pour a layer of vegetable oil over water and try to guess which objects from a selection will float on each layer.

    Image of homemade boats using lemons and recycled materials

    Last Updated on April 21, 2021 by Emma Vanstone

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    Safety Notice

    Science Sparks ( Wild Sparks Enterprises Ltd ) are not liable for the actions of activity of any person who uses the information in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources. Science Sparks assume no liability with regard to injuries or damage to property that may occur as a result of using the information and carrying out the practical activities contained in this resource or in any of the suggested further resources.

    These activities are designed to be carried out by children working with a parent, guardian or other appropriate adult. The adult involved is fully responsible for ensuring that the activities are carried out safely.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Madison

      September 16, 2019 at 8:41 pm

      I really enjoyed this experiment, and testing it out with my four year old daughter. We had fun constructing the boat and even though she did realize it, developing a hypothesis.

      Reply

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