Build Your Own Hovercraft:
Poster for Meeting of the Minds

Objectives:

• Portable & Adaptable Activity Fitting Into Any Science Curriculum
• Teach Engineering Concepts to Young Audiences

Audience:

• 30 Students in the 5^th and 6^th grades

Suitability to Children:

• Personalized Hovercrafts to Take Home
• Satisfaction of Building Their Own Hovercraft

Appeal to Parents and Instructors:

• Teaches Engineering Principles Using a Simple Object

Safe, Fun, and Engaging Activity

Steps of the Presentation:

1. Instructor's Introduction to Engineering Principles
2. Presentation of Engineering Analogies which include Air Bubble and Pressure Demonstrations.
3. Plexiglass Hovercraft Demonstration
4. Students build their own hovercrafts with visual handouts
5. Students play the game to see their hovercrafts in action

The Game:

• Similar to Bocce and Curtling, individual students launch their hovercrafts in order to get as close as possible to the bulls-eye.

By playing this game, students reinforce their understanding of the engineering principles by seeing science work in action.

• Air Pressure
• Low Friction Interactions
• Air Flow Through an Orifice
• Working Fluid Losses
• Equations:
• Bernoulli's Equation for Fluid Flow Along Streamlines
• P = F/A

The demonstration shows that the variation of the cross-sectional area of a straw has an inversely proportional relationship with the amount of force applied.

The demonstration also outlines analogies to relate the hovercraft phenomenon to things children see daily.

Features of the Materials:

• Common Household Items
• Easy to Acquire
• Inexpensive
• Non - Toxic

Materials Provided in the Activity Box:

• Materials for the Students:
• Balloons
• Film Cases
• Posterboard Bases
• Poster Adhesive
• Air Pump

• Materials for the Instructor:
• Pre-Fabricated Hovercrafts
• Clear Plastic Cups
• Straws of Different Diameters

Instruction Sheets