Cardboard boat races aim to stoke interest in engineering

Engineers of all ages came out on Saturday to show their skills at creating a buoyant cardboard boat.

The event, hosted by the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center, Southeast Missouri State University Recreation Services and Project Lead The Way, was a way to raise awareness for Project Lead the Way. PLTW is a nationally recognized program designed to prepare students to enter college engineering programs by taking special courses while still in high school.

According to Kristy Unger, the assistant director of the career and technology center, 12 high schools participate in taking the PLTW dual credit courses, which transfer to their future colleges.

Unger was one of four two-person teams who created a boat out of cardboard, and then had to use that boat to navigate obstacles and make it across the pool at Southeast Missouri State University's Student Aquatic Center.

Her teammate, Caroline Schott, helped construct their cardboard boat, which they named Lady Liberty. It was created using contact cement, duct tape and cardboard. The boat was patriotically decorated in red, white and blue, and the ladies had liberty costumes to match their vessel. Schott said it took about a week to construct.

Alex Gentle goes down with his cardboard boat, America, on Saturday during the cardboard boat races at the Student Aquatic Center of Southeast Missouri State University. (Fred Lynch)

The top two winners of the day were brothers Creighton, 9, and Wiley Edmundson, 7, for their boat Creighton and Wiley University and The Vikings, Marco Otten and Henning Bollerslev.

The Edmundsons' mother accompanied them to the race Saturday morning and said the duo had been working on their boat for almost a month. They were dressed as a sailor and pirate to accommodate the theme contest, and their ship won first in the pirates derby, which consisted of battling Lady Liberty to see who could sink whom the fastest; for most dry structure after racing; and first in best costumes.

Otten and Bollerslev had slightly more experience on their team. Bringing their engineering background into the mix, the two constructed a Viking-style vessel, which was capable of holding up to 500 pounds and was able to navigate the slalom in 1 minute, 36 seconds. Otten said he and his partner found the contest online, said it looked like fun, and they built their ship over the course of two Saturdays.

The Vikings took home first place in the speed competition and best design and theme. The prizes consisted of acrylic plaques with the award titles engraved.

The final boat, America, was created by Alex Gentle and Christian Retter. And, although colorful and patriotic, the boat proved not to be seaworthy. However, the two did receive brownie points for their creative use of American flag duct tape.

The director of the event, Collin Sheridan, was pleased with the turnout for the first-ever Cardboard Boat Races, although he did say more boats had registered then the ones who made it to race day.

"The idea was to entice people to learn about engineering," Sheridan said.

Participants were required to record the measurements of their boats and calculate the buoyancy. Sheridan said he enjoyed the event and hopes they can do it again next year.

smaue@semissourian.com

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