Sink or swim: high school physics class racing in cardboard boats to test their knowledge
Bradley Davis
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A physics teacher at Monument Academy High School (East Campus) is altering her curriculum this year to include a lesson plan that’s a little more “all hands on deck.”
Esme Wilhelm designed the competition for her students. She tasked teams of two and three to design a cardboard boat strong enough to carry their team members across a lap pool using the physics concepts of buoyancy, displacement and center of mass.
“Being able to see my students light up every day in this class, having their ideas and creativity, and that engineering comes into practice, is just what gives me pure joy,” Wilhelm said.
It’s the first time Esme has hosted this competition for her students. She said they have taken to it with a passion.
“I trust it. We did a lot of math about figuring out what the density and the displacement and everything was, so I’ve got confidence,” student Nalani Allen said about her group’s boat.
The race is at 1:30 p.m. in the Monument YMCA lap pool. The goal is to be the first to paddle across the length of the lap pool, but there is a Titanic award for the group that sinks the most dramatically.