Staff report
Villa Madonna Academy held its third annual Cardboard Boat Regatta, challenging engineering students to build a lake-worthy boat out of cardboard and duct tape.
Be assured, the competition was fierce. And some folks got wet.
The project is part of the dual credit (with UC Engineering School) “Fundamental of Engineering Design” course taught at Villa by Mark Wolff.
The students learn to apply science, such as the Archimedes principle, to a thing they build after a careful, organized design process.
Other considerations are properties of materials (corrugated cardboard and duct tape) and structural integrity and vessel stability (center of mass). Students consider these factors as they create a paper and pencil design that they translate to a built vessel.
There were three divisions.
The Engineering Division featured students taking the engineering course. The winner of that race were juniors Jackson Bond and Nate Ziegler.
There were two Open Divisions to accommodate all the students and one faculty team who wanted to try to row around the lake.
Open Division I was won by Jake Watson and Adam Kolar. They are 8th graders. They made a Moana-themed boat complete with Moana’s chicken Hei Hei on board.
Open Division II was won by freshmen Sophia Schaeffer and Kathryn McLagan. Their boat was the Valkyrie and they dressed as Valkyries.
There was a faculty boat. Timoty Hruszkewycz and Nathan Mullins were in a Dominoes Pizza-themed boat. Dominoes in Crescent Springs loaned them uniform hats and shirts to wear for the race.
Sadly, their boat tipped over pretty much instantly.
A group of one dozen students from Granada, Spain, visiting Villa for the past three weeks as part of our Spanish exchange program, wanted to participate in the race. They slapped together a boat at the last minute, taping a bag of styrofoam peanuts at the bottom hoping it would help them float. It sank almost immediately.
A very good time was had by all. And a wet time by many.
Rumor is that there will be a parent category next year.
Apparently nobody wants to miss out on the fun.
With thanks to Amy Holtzman of Villa Madonna