Skimmer

The Skimmer Challenge has been designed to supplement the curriculum of an elementary (4-6) science or math teacher. Like all AWIM challenges, the Skimmer Challenge will join together teachers, students, and industry volunteers in an exploration of physical science while addressing essential mathematic and scientific concepts and skills. In the Skimmer Challenge, students are introduced to a model Skimmer presented by the fictitious toy company EarthToy Designs, whose specialty is making toys out of recycled or recyclable materials. The design of the toy is incomplete and suggestions for variations on this toy are requested from student design teams. These teams provide many of the services required for the toy product to move to the next stage of development. They will test the model with different sails to understand how sail characteristics affect the way it moves, create other designs and test them, and then give a formal presentation of their final skimmer designs. Students acquire and then apply their knowledge of Skimmer performance to create an interesting toy. Students may choose to make Skimmers that sail fast or slow, turn or go straight. The sails may be functional, artistic, or even whimsical. In designing these new sails, students have control of the shape, size, balance of the sail, and the weight and balance of the Skimmer. Students working on this design challenge find that there is no one solution to any particular problem. There are many ways to configure the sail so that the Skimmer travels a great distance, does a turn, or carries a load. However, to sort through all the design factors and create a design for a particular purpose, students will need an understanding of how each factor affects performance. This understanding—based on their hands-on experimentation, gathering and understanding experimental data, and classroom discussions —sets the stage for student teams to create and refine their own skimmer designs.