VICTORIA, BC – For the past two weeks, students from the Vancouver area have been hard at work in the classroom, learning and preparing to hit the water in a cardboard boat that they have designed and constructed. In what has become an annual competition, two schools are tasked with the design and testing of cardboard boats on the water in a competition that now occurs multiple times per-year.
Facilitated by the Construction Foundation of BC’s Skills Ready initiative and supported by Seaspan, students experience the Applied Design, Skills and Technologies (ADST) curriculum first-hand through the fun and exciting process of creating a water-worthy boat.
On February 4, 2020, Vancouver’s Templeton Pool played host to the latest iteration of the boat making challenge, as teams from John Oliver Secondary School and Templeton Secondary School took their creations to the water to see how well they stood up to the ultimate test… floating. Rules of the competition were simple: at least one team member had to make a successful crossing inside their team’s boat across the Templeton pool.
“The cardboard boat building challenge is the definition of ADST,” explained René Ragetli from Skills Ready. “The students design, build and test their boats in the water. The process of creating these boats encompasses all the elements of ADST; design work, a hands-on experience and a fun component as well.”
Prior to entering the pool, teams of students have been working for the past two weeks with teachers Mike Hengeveld (Templeton) and John Silver (John Oliver) on their boat designs and scale models. Students also received boat building fundamentals from Seaspan’s Brad Moe.
Amid yet another snowstorm in Vancouver, the two schools came together at Templeton pool, with eight of 13 boats successfully completing the 25-metre voyage across the pool. It was a fun and eventful cap to a great hands-on learning experience.
About the Construction Foundation of BC
The Construction Foundation builds community through engagement in charitable initiatives and a commitment to industry focused education and research initiatives that benefit all British Columbians. For more information, please visit www.constructionfoundation.ca.
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