It is amazing how being in a boat and trying to make that boat go somewhere – can help you think about how it was designed and built. “Will this thing sink?” “Are we going to tip it over?” “I bet we could get further with less effort if this thing wasn’t so heavy.”
And so Dr. Lipat had his engineering class on the Bronx River a couple weeks ago as part of the “Rocking the Boat” initiative . As their motto states, “Kids don’t just build boats. Boats build kids.” And that day boats had Winch students thinking in interesting ways.
These Wapiti learned a bit about boat construction – and how to work the materials to make boats and boat parts. They learned how to use different tools. For some of them this included using large power tools for the first time. The students learned more about the ecosystem like the Bronx River and what is impacting our waterways.
And the students had a memorable learning experience that will probably outlive their memories of most math or engineering classes!
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