Plankton Wars (Arrghhh!!)

The piratical noise is there in the title because this day reminded me of pirates.  It involved war and water, and that was enough for my inner pirate to identify with.

Also, my group was pretty much Blackbeard, because our hypothetical plankton was victorious!

Our complex little plankton pirate at the end of its run in the tank (photo courtesy of Chris Colvin)

When I say complex here, I truly mean it.  I received some incredulous looks from my partner, Brandon, and the other people at the table as I continued to add onto Brandon's and my design (with constant input from said partner, however).

To begin with, a wooden toothpick was surrounded by light play dough.  Parallel at either end of this little post were small pieces of hollow plastic straw, blocked off with more pliable pink dough to retain air and buoyancy. 

Two hollow plastic cotton swabs criss-crossed across this apparatus.

Hanging below it all was a weight mechanism comprised of a rock held in between to soda tabs by play dough, held together by another toothpick, and suspended from the plankton by a small, zig-zagged piece of cloth which was in turn skewered by another toothpick around the main body of the plankton.

Whew.

Brandon felt here that our little pirate (well, he didn't call it that) would be better off with something to keep it from sinking too fast, and so we added the paper cupcake holder to the final toothpick.

And this is how Blackbeard the plankton was born!  I think that my group's attempt at balancing enough weight and sources of buoyancy was relatively successful.

In retrospect, Blackbeard could have been simpler.  The other winning team had a less extravagant format for their plankton, pictured below:

Karen, a member of the one other winning team (Captain Hook?) and her little plankton. (photo courtesy of Mrs. Richardson)

In general, however, the majority of the class's plankton prototypes were unsuccessful because they floated too easily.  Concerned that they would get poor times, my peers ensured that their little models wouldn't succumb to the proverbial craken of gravity.  However, the other plankton designs either floated on the surface of the water the entire time, or floated their until being tapped below the surface, at which point they plunged to the bottom of the tank.

Here I am with my prized war plankton: