Reaching out to touch the side of the pool and be the first team to complete the challenge, senior Nate Bollinger guides the boat, while seniors Ashley Coffey and Ronnie Moore provide the manpower to finish the race. Photo by Connor Burress
In the PLTW: Engineering Design and Development class, students were assigned to create a cardboard boat to compete in a race to see which boat was best designed. At the end of the race, seniors Ashley Coffey, Ronald Moore and Nathan Bolinger were declared the winners for designing the most effective boat.
\tPLTW: Engineering Design and Development teacher Edward Schmitt uses this project as a way to educate his students. “This cardboard boat race is a great project that combines engineering design and physics in order to give students a hands-on experience,” stated Schmitt. “I think this project has taught students to plan, organize, work in groups and use the design process to problem solve.”
\tAlthough the project did teach students about engineering and design, the project also challenged students to think outside of the box and enjoy the creative process that isn’t always traditional in classroom learning. “I think it’s important to live in the moment because it just lets people expand themselves. Everyone can just lay back and have fun while doing good work at the same time,” said Bolinger. “Just paddling and surviving; it was a little scary because we were going across the water, knowing the boat could spring a leak and we could lose or fall. But it was fun at the same time.”
Story by Sri Nattam