Students Race Boats Made of Cardboard

You probably had to write dozens of essays throughout your school years. Maybe you even had to make an exploding volcano for a science experiment. But did you ever have to build a life-size cardboard boat to race against your classmates in the school pool? That's exactly what the AP physics class at Upper St. Clair High School had to do this week.

Mr. Clayton Yonker said his students' race performances counted as 50 percent of their grades. The students received a D if it went one length of the pool, a C for two lengths, a B for three and an A for four lengths.  

To add to the pressure, a full audience of classmates and teachers were watching from the stands.

The students were only allowed to use 1/8 inch corrugated cardboard for their structures and were encouraged to think of ways to make the cardboard more of a structural reinforcement. They used liquid nails to glue the cardboard together and caulking to seal the seams. Finally, 4 mil plastic was used to waterproof their boats.

"The students had to use Newton's Laws, Achimede's principle, their knowledge of torque, equilibrium, basic geometry and trigonometry to design and calculate the needed volume of their boats in order to hold a specified target weight. They began with four designs which the calculated the volume of water displaced by the targeted load, the area of the bottom of the boat, the depth the boat was expected to sink into the water with the load and the volume of the entire boat. The calculations were used to determined the height of the sides and width of the boat. They the built scaled prototypes to test their designs and determine which one would become the actual boat," Mr. Yonker said.

Race day was Wednesday, one day before the last day of school for the seniors. The atmosphere was competitive and loud. Students in the audience took turns starting chants and cheered loudly when a boat overturned.

Despite all of the challengers, the racers successfully accomplished the assignments — and had a lot of fun. Mr. Yonker said he gave all groups an A.

Flip through the photo slideshow and click on the video above to see the excitement.