Cardboard Canoe Challenge

     

Achievements : 14/19

    Over the past two weeks we completed a really interesting and unique project. We had to use a couple sheets of cardboard and two rolls of duct tape to create a boat that could float and traverse the pool.

My team decided to build a boat similarly shaped to a boston whaler, with a square back and a pointed front, with a flat bottom. We used one sheet for our bottom then taped different boxes to the sides to build our walls.

This is Joe and me adding the side wall to our cardboard boat.

After we had our frame of the boat completed, we covered the entire outter shell with ductape, then taped a few extra sheets on the inside bottom to add support and keep the bottom from buckling. Our boat was ready to hit the water.

The first contest was to see who can go the furthest, the fastest. Our boat was really fast, and what I found interesting was how well our boat sat on top of the water; the water seemed to only rise up about an inch on the sides of the boat even with Kingston inside it. Our previous predictions for how high the water would go were in the range of six inches to a foot.

We put Kingston inside and had our three polo players

push us to victory in the distance competition

This video shows the speed and prowess of our watercraft

We pretty much dominated in the early stages of the games, but that was soon to change in the later phases. Below is a picture of the blindfolded challenge. In this challenge our team had to put one man in our boat and the rest of the team had to direct them verbally to help them collect kickboards placed throughout the pool.

We directed Joe the best we could, but failed to pull a victory.

However our boat quickly began falling apart after the cardboard became waterlogged. So the blindfolded challenge was our boat's last.

Our boat was still intact, but the bottom was soaked and threatened to rip through.

Design Achievements:• Define the Problem and Brainstorm Solutions - We need to cross the swimming pool using only cardboard and duct tape. To tackle this problem we have gathered ideas from actual ships and boats. We have decided to use a boston whaler type design, with a pointed front and a flat bottom, sides and back. To test this out we first created a mini boat out of regular paper and our small prototype worked out so we continued onto the full scale version.
• Big Brain - Cover all sides with duct tape, copy the design of actual boats, use a big surface area for better bouancy, and create thick sidewalls to keep the boat strong.
• Criteria & Constraints - The one implied criteria is that the boat must float. Implied constraints are that we can only use cardboard and duct tape, we must cover all sides to prevent clogging the pool filters, and the cardboard must meet the quality standard so it doesn't fall apart in the pool.
• Sketch Ideas- sketches complete!  
• Prototype Ideas- we created a mini model of our water craft (pictured above) and the key feature is the large cabin.
• Select an Approach - our mini water craft actually worked really well, we are going to replicate it on a large scale now. We make note that the side walls need to be securely in place.


Build Achievements:
• Build It!- Done
• The Early Bird Gets the Achievement - I think we finished 2nd here.
• V-Bottom- part of our design was keeping the bottom flat...


Test Achievements:
• The Fastest- our craft traveled the fastest (probably because we had 3 water polo players pushing)
• The Farthest - we completed about 5 laps 
• The Longest - our water craft fell apart after water got in the inside. The cardboard turned to mush and ripped.  
• Balance Master - Joe was able to do this one.
• Videographer -  we got the video up on youtube and onto our blogs (see above)


Reflection Achievements:
• Feedback - Generate ten items of feedback for your effort (+, change, ?, !)
  1) + it could displace a lot of weight
  2) ! if water gets on the inside of it it quickly falls apart
  3) + however if it stays dry then the waterproofing on the outside protects it
  4) [change] possibly tape the inside of the boat to help keep all the cardboard dry
  5) ? if the base sheet of cardboard was smaller/ larger, how would that affect its bouyancy?
  6) ! any weight that is expected to float needs to be distributed throughout the entire bottom to prevent buckling
  7) [change] possibly a study sheet(s) that runs from the bow to stern to help improve its backbone
  8) ? if many more sheets are piled on the inside, will that affect the craft's bouyancy?
  9) + the boat has good speed because the majority of the hull sits above the surface of the water
  10) ? would a pointed back increase the craft's speed?
• How Low Did You Go?
  Our craft sat approximately two to three inches under water. It was definately surprising how little it sunk. The specific     weight of water is 62 lbs per cubic foot. Kingston weighs 110 lbs in comparison. So Kingston, spread over the area of about 15 square feet, was able to stay afloat.
• Redesign -
  If my team were to do another Cardboard Canoe, we would keep the same basic design since it worked well. We would probably narrow the edges since the huge bottom was a weak point. We might also experiment with having a pointed back.
- Build your watercraft. Document it with a presentable photo.- Draw 3 different sketches for possible designs. Label at least 3 key features for each sketch. Describe the feature's functionality so a viewer understands why the called out feature is important.

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