In your box, you will find the following items:

For the construction of the students’ hovercrafts:

Poster board Base Plates
Film Cases
Poster Putty (Fun Tak)
Balloons
Markers

For the Demonstration:

Two plexiglass hovercrafts for demonstration
2 straws (1 thin, 1 thick)
2 clear plastic cups
2 weights of different sizes
Clay

What to do with the materials:

Tools:
Power Drill: to drill holes in the film cases and in the posterboard base plates
Xacto Knife & T-Square: To cut base plates from the poster board.

• Obtain a 32"x40" posterboard from the Art Store
• Mark off 6" x 6" base plates on the posterboard so that you would have a 5x6 array of base plates.
• Cut out the base plates using an Xacto Knife
• Mark the centers of the plates and punch a hole through with the powerdrill, screwdriver, or hammer and nail.

Obtain the film cases from the Pittsburgh Filmmakers. People drop off empty film cases at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers so that they can be recycled. You can ask them if you could take some for an outreach project, and there should be plenty there. They are located at 477 Melwood Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15213 and their phone number is 681-5449.

Using a power drill, drill 0.25" holes through the bottom center of the film cases.

For the Demonstration:

The following two demonstrations are simple show the differences in air flow and pressure. Simple materials are used to teach students the principle of Pressure = Force/Area.

Air Flow Demonstration:

Fill two clear plastic cups with water. Take a small straw and blow bubbles into one cup. Take a large straw and blow bubbles into the other cup. Students will see that there is more turbulence (larger bubbles) in the cup with the larger straw. This is due to the smaller cross sectional area of the air flow inlet.

Pressure Demonstration:

Shape two clumps of clay into two approximately equally sized round balls. Take a large weight and place it on top of one of the balls. Place a smaller weight on top of the other ball. The larger weight flattens the ball of clay more than the lighter weight. This shows how a larger force applied to the same area is proportional to a larger amount of pressure.

Instructions for building the hovercraft:

• Have the students personalize their hovercrafts by coloring the posterboard base plate.
• Align the center holes of the film case and the posterboard. You can use pipecleaners to aid in aligning the centers.
• Attach the film case (open top facing away from the board) to the posterboard using a ring of poster tak.
• Blow up a balloon using the air pump.
• Pinch the balloon opening and attach it to the top of the film case.
• Place the hovercraft on the playing surface and let go.

Instructions for playing Shuffleboard:

After building their hovercrafts, students can try out their creations by playing the game Shuffleboard. Similar to bocce and curdling, students will launch their hovercrafts from one end of the playing surface to the target area at the other end. Th e playing surface is provided along with the activity box. It is comprised of three sheets of posterboard that can be unfolded to its full length.