AP physics students put their knowledge to the test when they were assigned to race cardboard canoes that they both designed and built.
Photo by Rebecca Holt
Every year, TJ Physics Teacher Nelson Vore, assigns his physics classes design projects where they use their physics knowledge to build something that will out-do the rest of their classmates.
Usually this project is a scrambler or a catapult; but this is the first year that an AP physics class has been in the picture at TJ, so Vore had to discover a newer, more challenging project for his advanced students. After much contemplation, Vore decided to have his students build canoes entirely out of cardboard and then physically get inside the boats and race them around the pool. “I was at a summer camp for AP teachers last summer when I met a teacher from Dougherty High School in Colorado Springs who has been doing the cardboard canoes for several years. I had been looking for some really different unique project for the AP course. I knew I would have to push the AP students pretty hard all year to adequately prepare them for the AP exam, and I wanted something that would just be pure fun – a way to let go a little of the studying stress. As soon as I heard about the cardboard canoes I knew that that was the project I had been looking for,” exclaimed Vore.
There were three groups that participated in this extra credit project, and each group built its own canoe. This reporter was actually a part of one of the three groups along with Alexandra Kaufhold and Akaxia Cruz. The second group consisted of Andrea Shacklock and Stephanie Warren, and the third group was comprised of Gilbert Carino and Jordan Shelton.
The task at hand was for the students to build a canoe while following strict guidelines, then row their canoes the full 25 meter-length pool and then back to the starting point, while being timed. Each group performed this timed race individually. This reporter’s group was randomly chosen to sail its boat first. Kaufhold watched from the sidelines as Akaxia and I climbed in the boat to test what we had built. With the two of us in the boat, it successfully floated. However, the design of the boat was not stable, and it tipped as soon as we started to paddle. Therefore, this group did not complete the race successfully, and received third place. “Since the project was simply for extra credit, we were mostly just focused on the fun of it, and not on the points we would earn. We were in if for the experience, and even though we went down right away, I had an awesome time and I’m glad we decided to participate,” said Akaxia.
Carino and Shelton successfully floated in their boats, and were able row their boats to the end of the pool and back in about a minute and a half. “We were happy to have our boat succeed. We worked really hard on it, but it is just really nerve racking when you have to enter a competition without being able to test anything. So even if we didn’t win we were still excited to be able to finish the race,” said Carino.
The two other groups were most intimidated by Shacklock and Warren’s sturdy and professional–looking canoe. Just as everyone had expected, the two girls were also able to propel their boats the required distance with the exact same time as Carino and Shelton. With this unlikely outcome, Vore made the decision to have the two boats race side by side in an intense tiebreaker. Both groups’ boats survived this race but the girls finished the race first, as Carino and Shelton had trouble steering their boats. “I was worried because our boat was so heavy we didn’t think it would even float,” said Shacklock.
After the victory, our previous opponents allowed Akaxia and I, along with whomever else we could pack into their canoe, to play around and navigate in the pool to test their boat’s limits. Eventually, after having six of us in there, the boat collapsed. “Being able to fit six people in our boat was possibly the greatest moment of my life when we didn’t even think with two of us it would float,” said Warren.
The project was generally a success, aside from this reporter’s failure. “Whenever you do something like this for the first time there are usually all sorts of things that can go wrong. Fortunately, I was lucky to have the complete Dougherty rules, which turned out to have been very well thought out – so no major mess-ups occurred – it all went very smoothly. It was amazing watching Gilbert and Jordan’s wide, flat-bottomed boat concept in action – I was thinking it might not be stable and might capsize, but it swam like a duck. And Andrea’s and Stephanie’s cardboard ‘battleship’ was awesome – at the end it actually held six passengers (for a short while). Alex, Rachel and Akaxia’s overnight wonder didn’t make it very far, but it was a lot of fun watching them make the attempt. I am already thinking about how the event could be improved for next year,” said Vore.
