Lesson Plan (Grades K-2): Underwater Robotics Relay: Building and Racing Submarine Models

Lesson Title: Underwater Robotics Relay: Building and Racing Submarine Models

Grade Level: Grades K-2

Subject Area: Science/Engineering

Overview: In this lesson, students build and race simple “submarine” models using plastic bottles and propellers (manual or battery-powered) to explore buoyancy, propulsion, and basic circuitry. Through hands-on design, testing, and iteration, students learn how weight distribution and motor placement impact a model’s ability to float and move straight. This activity encourages collaboration, critical thinking, and foundational engineering principles.

Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will demonstrate how adding or removing weight (modeling clay) affects a submarine’s buoyancy (float, sink, hover).
2. Students will explore propulsion by attaching and testing a manual propeller or a simple battery-powered motor to their submarine models.
3. Students will iteratively adjust their submarine designs—tweaking buoyancy and propeller alignment—to achieve straight-line movement across a water table.
4. Students will collaborate in pairs, record observations in a simple data sheet, and explain how their design changes improved (or hindered) performance.

Standards Alignment:

• Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS):
  • K-2-ETS1-1: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information to define a problem (design a submarine that floats and moves straight).
  • K-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation comparing the effects of different strengths or directions of pushes on an object’s motion (propeller thrust).
• Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics:
  • K.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively when predicting how far a submarine will travel.
  • 1.MD.A.1: Compare lengths of submarines and measure distances traveled in the water table race.