The student body files into the bleachers, shoulder to shoulder, eager to watch a school tradition: it’s cardboard boat race time.
“It’s always a riot, because just to get in their heads, they are like ‘oh, I can beat your boat, but you’re worried about my boat, so I already won,’ so you’re not worried about yours anymore. I enjoy looking around at everyone’s boat,” physics teacher Kyle Luz said.
In its fourth year, the physics, auto, drafting and woodshop classes work together. To build a boat out of cardboard; make it to other side of the pool and back without sinking, tipping or breaking apart. There are three people in each group and two ride in the boat. To prepare for the races, students receive four pieces of 8 x 4 foot cardboard. Teammates meet, design, strategize and use math to build the boats they envision.
“They might never build a boat again, but they will have ups and downs, successes and failures, and it’s getting up and trying it again,” Luz said. “I like that.”