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Week Four 

Welcome to the final week of our solar energy unit. This week you will be experiencing solar energy for yourself as you will build your own solar powered boat.

Activity

   One

Watch short video of solar powered model boat:

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Solar power challenge: You will design and create your own solar powered boat out of recyclable/reusable materials and the solar powered boat kit you were supplied with.

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Materials:

  • Solar powered boat kit - This was delivered to your house (Kit includes: 1 solar panel, 1 propeller kit, 1 basic motor, 1 motor mount and double-sided tape, 1 black toggle switch, connection wire, 2 alligator clips)

  • Recycled/reusable materials to build the body of your boat (Materials that could be useful: plastic bottles, straws, paddle pop sticks, foil, plastic containers, styrofoam products etc.)

  • Scissors

  • Craft glue

  • Sticky tape

  • Paper and pencil

  • 1 large container/kids pool for testing boats  

 

Note: the instructions in the solar powered boat kit will explain what each piece of equipment is and how to connect it to your boat! You should take photos at each step of creating your solar powered boat as you will need these in the next activity.

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Activity instructions:

Step 1: Gather all the materials needed to create your boat.

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Step 2: Looking at the recycled materials that you have available, you should think about how you will design the body of your boat. You should use paper and pencil to sketch out your design. Note: you will need to have space on the back of your boat to glue your motor in place, a space on the boat somewhere to have your power toggle switch and a place to position your solar panels.

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Step 3: Next, you should construct the body of your boat out of your chosen recyclable/reusable materials. Remember, your design must allow the boat to float!

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Step 4: Using the solar powered basic boat kit, follow the instructions in the box to attach the solar panel, the propeller, the motor and the toggle power switch to allow your boat to be solar powered.

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Step 5: Fill your large container/kids pool with water. Remember, your boat is solar powered so it must be in sunlight. Place your boat in the water and switch the power button on to make your boat move around the water. 

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Step 7: Whilst the power is turned on, put your hand over the top of the solar panels to block direct sunlight. Watch how this effects your boat. Have a think about why this is.

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Solar Power Boat Challenge

Once your boat running you should film it on your iPhone and upload the video onto the class padlet under the heading ‘Week 4: Solar Power challenge’. Make sure to check out your peers’ solar powered boat designs in action.

Activity

   Two 

Explain Everything

You will explain the sequence of steps you took to build your solar powered boat by creating an ‘explain everything’ presentation. You should will use the photos that you took throughout the challenge to help show what you did at each step. You should pretend your explanations will be used to help guide someone else to make a solar powered boat.

 

You can access the explain everything website through this link: https://explaineverything.com/

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You should post the link to your ‘explain everything’ presentation on the class padlet under the heading ‘Week 4: Explain Everything Presentations’.​

When you have completed both of the tasks for this week, send me an email to let me know and also let me know your favourite part of this unit.

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