Health & Fitness
MTRS Floats Your Boat
Students in the 8th grade work on the theories of buoyancy to determine whether their boat will float.
The 8th grade students at MTRS have been studying the forces in fluids. To test their theories, students built boats out of metal and aluminum foil (some tape allowed) to test their theories of buoyancy. The students loaded fifty pennies on their boats to see whether their boats would float or sink. Students learned that fluid pressure depends on depth and used the principles of buoyancy to design their boat.
The result of this experiment was only one boat out of the five built sank. The students used a variety of designs and were surprised at how many were able to float and that some could even hold more than fifty pennies.
The PreK 4 class was on hand to observe the 8th grade experiment. “This was a nice opportunity for the younger students to see what the older children do in science class” according to Mrs. Antol, “the children had a good time rooting on the 8th graders as they stacked those pennies.”
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Mrs. Jennifer Baeder, who teaches Middle School Science, noted “The students always love when we work to put the theories into action and experiment. It is a great way to engage the students in learning.”
Mother Teresa Regional School is a preK3 through 8th grade Catholic school serving students in the Bayshore. The science program has won 1st place (2012) and third place and honorable mention (2013) in the STARS Challenge. For more information on MTRS visit mtregional.com.
