Learning By Doing

Students in Rod Yoder's honors physics class are learning by doing.

To demonstrate physics principles and to illustrate a lesson on buoyancy, Yoder directed his Warsaw Community High School students to build their own boats. Out of cardboard. And then float them in the WCHS pool.

The 19 kids in the class got the assignment before Christmas, so they've had about five weeks to work on their boats, Yoder said earlier this week.

They were assigned in teams of two, with one team of three, and both students in each team had to be in the boat in the pool for the buoyancy test.

"Last year the kids had to build collapsible chairs out of cardboard that could support a 250-pound person," Yoder said. "This year they have to build complete cardboard boats."

About half of the students' first-semester grades depend on the boat test. Yoder said the boats were judged on construction, buoyancy, maneuverability and the ability to make it around the 600-meter course Yoder set up in the pool.

The students had a fairly free hand on designing their boats, with no specific rules from Yoder.

"This is completely open to the kids' interpretations," he said.

And their interpretations varied widely, resulting in one yellow boat that looked like a duck, another built with corrugated cardboard and shaped like an airplane, and simple boats, like the S.S. Fred, that looked, well, like student projects.

The lesson also included a summary sheet on which the students described how they've completed the project, and list the materials they used, estimated costs and a daily journal.

Students said they used whatever they could think of or whatever was handy to put together their boats.

Lindsay Bruick and Rachel Buhrt took their camouflage boat, made of cut up refrigerator boxes, out in the pool first; they assembled it with sealant, caulk and duct tape.

Buhrt said it took three days to build the boat; after four laps around the course, the boat held together and took in only a little water.

They didn't know until Friday's launching whether the boat would float or not because they didn't try it out. "We didn't want to weaken it," Bruick said.

"Obviously, the learning part of this project will come when they get in the water," Yoder said.

The project not only reinforces the physics principles he teaches, Yoder said, but demonstrates cooperation, engineering and problem-solving.

"The school, because of block scheduling, has encouraged us to try to get away from a paper-and-pencil test if at all possible," Yoder said.