We tried not to over complicate the design enough so that a elementary schooler could understand how to use it and how it would work, possibly colour-coding certain parts so it’s more obvious how the mechanism works and how different parts work, although we didn’t quite take into consideration the fragility of the Popsicle sticks if the child were to drop it or accidentally crush it. However, as long as they are at least somewhat careful with the model, it shouldn’t break.

Design concept:

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The plan is to create the main body out of Popsicle sticks, so that it’s light enough to float on the surface of the water, and to use rubber bands to power the wheels so that the potential energy when the rubber band is pulled back is converted to kinetic energy which is used to spin the wheels and move the boat across the water. We would make wheels out of bottle caps and the paddles on the wheels out of bent Popsicle sticks so that the curved design of them will push more water and propel it more. the axles for the wheels would have been made out of skewer sticks which would attach to the wheels and spin freely so that our method of power would be viable. We also plan on adding hulls to the back of the boat for stability and to make it move straight.