It’s a cold December night and sixth graders from Sandburg Middle School, most in shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops, are carrying boats into the York High School pool. For a boat race.
The boats are small and special, made by the students, but capable of carrying two to five of the young sailors back and forth across the York pool — at least twice. Made mostly of cardboard, but with every surface covered and made waterproof by duct tape. And not just the dull gray stuff, but seemingly every color of the rainbow, from a pink boat crewed by girls possibly reflecting a Barbie vibe to a yellow #2 Pencil, complete with a black tip and pink “eraser.”
The students are all enrolled in the District 205 Project Lead The Way program. According to teacher and program coordinator Ed O’Connor, Project Lead the Way is a nationwide STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program. It has been offered to middle school and high school students in District 205 since the 2018- 2019 school year. As of 2023, it is also being offered to District 205 elementary school students. Middle school students can also take PLTW classes to learn about coding, app creation, robotics, flight & space, and architecture.
This is the sixth year for the program in the district, but only the second year for the regatta. Teachers Tom Walker, Andrew Lim, and O’Connor created the boat regatta last year to give Design and Modeling PLTW students, all 6th graders, an opportunity to bring their designs to life.
As O’Connor said in an email to Pioneer Press, “There’s nothing like climbing into a boat and riding it across the pool with your teammates to really drive home the importance of creating a well-crafted, tested design and building with great attention to detail.”
In addition to engineering and boatbuilding skills, the regatta was alive with the energy and excitement of the assembled sixth graders.
Boats were initially designed using 1/12th scale drawings and builds. After testing different designs, each group chose their best design and constructed it in full size to fit 2 to 5 team members. Students also designed and built the paddles.
The racing sailors competed this year in five heats, won by the first crew to complete one lap across the York pool and back to the start. The winning boat from each heat was pulled out of the water in readiness for the final, while the other boat crews had a few minutes for recreational paddling.
Some of those outings resulted in “accidental” capsizes and quick swims for the lifejacket-clad crews.
O’Connor reminded students at the start of the regatta that the builders should be thankful for the late Vesta Stoudt, an Illinois mom credited by Johnson & Johnson with inventing the product we know as duct tape. He added that the regatta would also mark a turning point in the Sandburg Middle School environment. “Now we won’t have to smell duct tape 24/7,” he said.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Here are a couple of more photos:
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