teaching kids to build a boat in an hour!

[jimdietz]

Schooner School in Milwaukee, a program of Pier Wisconsin where I'm a volunteer instructor, tasked me with a rainy day activity for kids 12 to 14 when they can't be out on Lake Michigan. My suggestion was a sort of 6-hour canoe kit they could assemble and I could have their pictures taken with their achievement and then send them home with an individualized nameplate. I would disassemble the boat(s) and ready them for the next group. I'm thinking a small version of a slab-sided canoe, around 12 ft long X 24 inches. Simple, straight stems and lightweight chines for screws. Never to be launched. Birch plywood rather than okoume. Wow, even steel screws.
I plan to use 5 of these midgets for about 30 kids. The only tool they'd use is a screw driver so everything would be precut and interchangable.
Okay boatbuilders: love it, hate it, any thoughts or ideas?

[Wild Dingo]

eerrr you/they could always eeerr build the 6 hour canoe!... why not? :rolleyes: ooops I now read the title!! DUHH!!... still the question beggars the answer eh wot?!

[ 05-16-2003, 01:26 PM: Message edited by: Wild Dingo ]

[Wiley Baggins]

I don't want to discourage you, but putting one of these (a six-hour canoe) together in an hour (even with quite a bit of prefabrication) might be quite a push depending on their expertise. Are they too old at 12-to-14 to build model boats?

[Steve Paskey]

Okay, no offense, I'm playing the devil's advocate here: Are you really teaching them something about "boatbuilding"? Or are you simply teaching them to put pieces of wood together with screws in a way that happens to resemble a boat?

Would you do this if the finished product didn't look like a boat? In other words, is the boat INTEGRAL to the lesson, or merely incidental?

A couple more questions: Are they going to enjoy doing this? Is it possible to link this to some real boatbuilding project? Is it going to get them interested in actual boatbuilding, such as with Mystic Seaport's "jellyfish" class boats?

[ 05-16-2003, 07:24 PM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]

[A. Mason]

How about knot-tying for a rainy day project that's boating related. Each kid could learn how to do one fancy knot, then mount it on a plaque with a name label. I have a collection of seven knots mounted in a shadow box on my wall. It's a viable on-going type of project that could be utilized whenever it rains.

Just a thought, Anita

[Paul Scheuer]

My suggestion for a rainy day, indoor activity for interested kids would involve hands on sail handling on a fully rigged but workable-sized, indoor Lake Schooner, along the lines of the USS Recruit used in Navy basic training to teach deck drills.

I'm having trouble making the connection between the temporary assembly of a pre-cut kit, of wrong material, with actual boat building or the Lake schooner heritage.

[doorstop]

To my way of thinking it may be better for the kids to build a model that they could take away and float/ finish/ show off ..... still a boat,still construction, still a lesson but they get something concrete for their efforts.

[Mr. Know It All]

My thinking is any "hands on" experience you can give them will be good. A boat that floats when you're done would be cool. :cool: If it rains alot you could build a fleet. :D

[Hans Friedel]

If the Kids are going to build the boats themself they need much more time than a day.

Personaly I think it is very important that the kids do as much they can themself without interferense from adults.

Here is a nice project

http://www.alaska.net/~fritzf/Boats/KidClass/Boatshop/shopmain.htm

But I would personaly not have used Epoxi

Hans Friedel

[siberianswampdonkey]

Have them build some type of plywood one sheet skiff and let them keep it they won't want to do it if they can't keep it if you ask me.