Cardboard Canoe Challenge

Achievements:
We gained 11 achievements for this challenge.

Define the problem and list brainstorm ideas:

We are designing a canoe out of cardboard and covering it with duct tape to prevent it from disintegrating in the water. We are building the canoe so that it will still float while carrying the lightest person in our group.

1. make the walls high enough so the boat will not sink when carrying our lightest team member, Morgan.
2. use out-riggers to enable stability
3. cover thoroughly with duct tape so water will not be able to get to any part of the cardboard
4. use an extra piece of cardboard on each side to reinforce strength
5. cover the corners with multiple layers of duct tape for reinforcement
6. make sure that the walls are not so tall that the boat will still balance on its own
7. use a flat bottom instead of a v-bottom or u-bottom shape for balance
8. make walls short enough so that the person in the boat is able to reach over the side
9. cover inside of boat with duct tape
10. reinforce all edges and corners with extra duct tape
11. build a canoe that is basically a box with shorter walls
12. make a larger bottom to create more surface area
13. make a paddle out of cardboard (Morgan and Patrick will call it a sword :))
14. cover the paddle with duct tape
15. bring in extra cardboard
16. bring in extra duct tape
17. reduce amount of cardboard to increase speed
18. consider making a sail
19. consider making pontoons
20. name the boat: "The Morgan Mobile"!


Criteria and Constraints:
Criteria: Build a boat out of cardboard and duct tape that will float with a person in it.
Constraints: Only use duct tape and cardboard, make the boat light enough to carry it down to the pool, limited amount of cardboard and duct tape.

Sketch Ideas:

Prototypes:

Feedback:
+: the extra duct tape and cardboard payed off because the boat carried a person well
change: we could've made the walls shorter
?: We took extra stability precautions, why wasn't our boat more stable?
!: If we had increased the surface area, the boat might've been more stable.

Surface Area: 9540 cm^2. It took 3 rolls of duct tape to completely cover our boat.

Build it!

Our finished product! Our team, Patrick, Daniel, Morgan, and my best friend Ersi stand proudly around the triumphant "Morgan Mobile"!

Balance Master!  A member of our team, Daniel, stood in the canoe for about 28 seconds.

Videographer!

Feedback:

1. !: we could've made the walls shorter
2. +: the extra cardboard worked well
3. +: reinforcement of duct tape worked well
4.  -: could've been more stable
5. !: we could've made the front pointed in order to enable it to cut through the water faster
6. change: we should've increased the surface area of the bottom
7. +: the size of the boat worked well
8. ?: why wasn't it more stable?
9. ?: why didn't the boat move faster?
10. +: the boat only went down a few inches in the water

How low did you go?

The boat went down about 2-4 inches in the water