Grade eight students became shipwrights this week. 

Students from rural Saskatchewan and local schools within the Praire South School Division took over the Kinsmen Sportsplex on Thursday and Friday for an exciting hands-on learning day to go along with their studying of buoyancy.

"They have to create a boat that will make it across the pool out of cardboard, only using duck tape, string, Exacto knives, and a paper clip. They come with their designs, they come with their prototypes, they come with all their ideas and then for two hours they're given the materials set forth and create a boat that's going to get them across," explained Career Development Consultant for the Prairie South School Division, Brett Young. "They come here, they develop their stuff. It's so exciting for us to see the process that they're coming in with and then how engaged they are in what they're creating. For two hours we don't hear a peep from them, they're quiet, and they're doing their thing. When we finally get to the pool, they get in there and then they can test to see if it actually works."

Zain Kashif of Sunningdale School was one of the many students participating on Day 2, he explained the many factors he and his team had to take into consideration during the planning and development phases.

"The one thing I learned was to make a triangle at the front of your boat, the bow of your boat should be shaped like a triangle so it can cut through the water then you can move quicker and more efficiently," added Kashif.  

 Nigel Fang of the Beach Boys team who was also from Sunningdale school said they were taking their lessons from the classroom and directly implementing them into the construction phase.

"We're cutting corners so that the measurements are exactly even because boats have to be exactly even to be able to float because of buoyant forces. It has to travel through the water quickly and you want all sides to be even (and) you have to disperse your mass evenly."

There were about 20 races each day across the shallow end of the pool at the Kinsmen Sportsplex where students were able to test out their products and cheer each other on the finish line.

Young also noted that this day is not only an exciting hands-on learning opportunity for the kids, it also gives them a chance to meet others from around the province and compete against them in a friendly environment.

"You have schools from all over the place like Mankota, Gravelbourg, LaFleche, all these rural schools and the city schools they get to come together. Some of these students have never seen each other before, they spend the entire day doing the same learning but they're meeting students from other schools."

The two hundred students who participated in the Prairie South School Division's Cardboard Boat Races for 2019 only had two hours to boats before letting them set sail in the pool for the competition.