Subject Area(s): Physical Science, Physics
Associated Unit: Kinematics
Associated Lesson: Speed
Activity Title: Design & Manufacture Your Own Hovercraft
Grade Level: 9-12
Time Required: 2 days
Group Size: Optimal group size would have students paired into groups of two. Group size
could increase to include three members if needed.
Expendable Cost per Group: estimated to be less than $5 (US) per group, dependant on
requests of designers and manufacturers
Summary: Students will design their own tabletop hovercraft that will then be used to collect
data to measure speed.
Engineering Connection
Students learn about the creative process of designing a hovercraft. Upon the onset of problems,
students work to find ways to amend those problems with different materials in order to come up
with the best, fastest hovercraft.
Engineering Category
This project entails the complete engineering design and manufacturing concept.
Keywords: speed, friction, distance, time
Alabama Course of Study Standards:
 ALCOS Science: Explain linear, uniform circular and projectile motion using one and two
dimensional vectors.
Pre-Requisite Knowledge:
 Students should be able to select the correct metric unit for distance measurement &
accurately measure to the correct number of significant figures.
Learning Objectives:
After this activity, students should be able to:
 Calculate the speed of the hovercraft.
 Determine the best design for a tabletop hovercraft.
 Determine the approximate cost for manufacturing the tabletop hovercraft.
Materials List:
Each group needs:
 materials may vary from group to group depending on their design profile. Example
materials may be CDs, various bottle tops, balloons, hot glue, plumbers glue, straws, sewing
thread spindles, hot glue guns, nails, hammer, drill.
Introduction / Motivation: Students will be charged with producing the most cost-effective
table-top hovercraft that will provide the best values for calculating speed. This can be tied to a
down-turn in the economy and the need to use ready-available materials rather than prepackaged kits. Teachers could also tap into their students’ more competitive side and set up
teams to compete against one another.
Vocabulary:
 distance: length between two points
 average speed: total distance divided by total time
 time: interval between two events
Attachment: Classroom Handout
Safety Issues: Care should be taken when dealing with sharp objects and/or hot glue.
Troubleshooting tips: CDs work better than paper/Styrofoam plates. Sometimes the hole in the
CD can be made bigger to help with air flow.
Investigating Questions:
 What force must be overcome to get the hovercraft to move?
 Which of Newton’s Laws is this lab directly related to?
Assessment: Individual teachers could determine the parameters for “best” hovercraft. It may
be the one that goes the farthest or the one that goes the fastest. It could also be determined by
cost to manufacture the hovercraft. This could lead to an interesting class discussion prior to the
project.
Activity Extensions: Manufactured hovercraft could be used in a further unit to study
momentum and collisions.
Activity/Scaling Differentiation: Teachers should decide for themselves how points will be
awarded and grades assigned based on this project.
Additional Multimedia Support: Videos of home-made hovercraft can easily be found on
YouTube, although this may not be viewable at school.
Procedure
Background: We typically use toy cars and RC vehicles when introducing speed before moving
on to acceleration and the different position-time, velocity-time, acceleration-time graphs. This
activity provides an opportunity for the students to engage in design engineering by designing
and then manufacturing their own tabletop hovercraft that is then used to calculate speed.
Students should keep in mind that they will then be charged with manufacturing the hovercraft in
bulk with the idea to profit from such endeavor. Therefore, cost of supplies and labor to
assemble and package should be considered when designing and building the tabletop hovercraft.