MSB Students Make a Splash at 4th Annual Cardboard Boat Regatta

Seventh-grade students at the Middle School for Boys (MSB) competed in the event – now in its fourth year – on Friday, May 10th.
Not surprisingly, preparations for the regatta started in the classroom as the culmination of a twelve-week math and science project that focused on properties of buoyancy, density, surface area, and volume. With the help of these concepts and digital design software, each student designed a boat for consideration in the regatta, building scale models of their designs to see how they would handle the (potential) waves.

Once each advisee group had decided on a design for their boat, they were challenged with bringing their scale models to life using only cardboard and duct tape. Not only this, but each boat had to accommodate at least two seventh-grade students and be “sea-worthy” enough to complete a course in the Williams Natatorium.

Five student boats met these requirements and were built strongly enough to withstand the regatta. At the end of the event, the Paris Advisee Group was awarded the 2019 Cardboard Boat Regatta Trophy. Joining the students’ vessels were boats built by members of the MSB faculty, the CK Dads’ Club, and the CK Mothers’ Council. After an intense head-to-head race between these groups, the CK Dads’ Club were named the victors for the second year in a row.

Many thanks to Pamela Marr for providing the details of this story.
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