PhyllisChancey   06/10/10 1:31pm

I did this activity at the beginning of the year with 6th graders! They loved it and so did I! I was impressed with their problem solving skills. They still talked about it @ the end of the year.

PWagner   06/02/10 5:19pm

I was confused too but found this on line:
Fred sits on the inverted cup. The cup sits covering the life preserver on the tabletop. No real water is involved. if the group size is 3 or 4, each person gets only 1 paper clip.

I don't know that there are any real answers - since it's more of a team-building problem solving initiative rather than a yes/no answer. However, what they need to figure out is, that if they work together, then one person maneuvers Fred (without hooking him) and the other uses the paper clips to stretch the gummy lifesaver for him to slip on. (The lifesaver will have a smaller i.d. than Fred's o.d. by a fairly obvious amount)
Ask them typical debriefing-type questions: what worked, what didn't, did you plan, did you share ideas, did you just mangle poor Fred trying to make it work? etc.
I had groups of 3 and made it more of a challenge by allowing only 1 paperclip per student - that took more thought and coordination to save Fred without drowning him (I had a couple decide that if he fell into the ocean, they would fish him out and perform mouth to mouth resuscitation - so I had to remind my guys - 7th and 8th graders - that eating anything, especially 'dead worms' was not allowed in the lab)

Best regards,
Pat

canduff   07/29/09 9:07am

Can you describe what it looks like or procedure for successfulness of this project? I would love to do this.

johnson237   07/21/09 11:00am

It does not matter what the material is used for the boat. It could be a paper cup. The point is to have Fred not touching the table. The life preserver is the gummy candies that look like a life preserver.

jrhodus   02/19/09 8:32am

We did this activity at the beginning of this school year. It really shows students that they need to learn to work together if they are to achieve success.

vcutts   06/19/08 9:29am

What material is used for the life-preservers?

what kind of aluminumn pan...are you talking about a pie pan or about a piece of aluminum foil folded into a boat?

I would love to use this with my 6th graders this year, but I need a bit more dscription-teacher instructions please....do you have a photo of the setup for this activity?

thanks,
vickie