Reexamine the picture of “The Janitor’s Boy” by Barbara McClintock to create a list of all of the materials used by the boy to create his raft.
Discuss the relationship of the materials selected to the purposes they serve. For example – A sheet was used as a sail because it is made of cloth like a sail.
Ask students to bring a selection of junk such as paper cups, utensils, Popsicle sticks, and other types of clean and safe materials that could be used to build.
Use a collection of the junk (either selected by the students or given to them randomly) to re-design the raft given one of the following problems:
Problem #1 – The boy went down to the cellar and the only materials he had available to build his raft is the junk provided. How could you make a raft for the boy out of the materials provided?
Problem #2 – The raft that the boy created was deemed not seaworthy. Create a new raft for the characters in the poem using the junk so that they can safely travel to “a desert isle with spicy trees somewhere near Sheepshead Bay.”
Students can collaboratively assess the rafts that they have built using the following criteria:
Feasibility
Creativity
Practicality
Experience #2:
Initiate a “research” project where students learn about the history and construction of ships using one or more of the following resources:
Virtual field trips to Maritime Museums
Non-fiction text
Photographs and images
Blueprints
Interviews with builders
Research the role of an engineer in the construction of ships. Pay particular attention to the tools, the materials, and the design elements that engineers use.
Look at famous historical ships such as the Queen Mary, the Lusitania, the Titanic, and the U.S.S. Constellation.
Notes to Teacher
Please note that both experiences relate to the NGSS Engineering Standards and span grade and content areas.
