With a list of select materials, students from junior high and high schools across gathered at NAIT in Edmonton to take part in a unique competition that put their science knowledge and creativity to work.
The St. Paul Regional High School science club members took part in the Skills Alberta Cardboard Boat Competition on Jan. 31, and won second place out of the thirteen competing schools.
Competing students from Regional High School included Fatima Iftikhar, Leah Page, Kezia Hatch, and Ethan Briggins.
Students were given one and a half hours to build a cardboard boat to race across a swimming pool, and hold a group of three members for one minute. They had cardboard, duct tape, packing tape, and a mystery items revealed to competitors on the day of the competition.
“This year’s mystery item was a small traffic cone which our team cut in half to use as paddles,” said Regional High School math and science teacher Alex Bernier. “The competition requires students to come with a detailed plan of how they will build their boat and what the final product will look like,” he explains.
“The boat must be able to race across a pool and hold three group members afloat for at least one minute.”
The event is normally held in October, but this year took at the end of January. This in itself posed a few challenges because participating students had to balance exams and studying, along with practicing their cardboard boat building skills.
“This challenge is open ended and problem-solving in nature,” reads the Alberta Skills event website. “It involves design, research and presentation, principles of structure, strength, rigidity, water permeability, propulsion, friction and direction control, buoyancy and displacement, adhesives and bonding, teamwork and fun.”
