COOS BAY, Ore. — An exercise in boatbuilding is giving a group of Coos Bay seventh-graders a lesson in engineering, design and oceanography.
Sunset Middle School received a 5-foot sailboat to assemble, decorate, name and track once it’s launched.
Sunset fifth-grade teacher Nick Krissie requested the boat from the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, one of six regional hubs statewide that focuses on the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and math.
Seventh-grade teacher Andrew Giniger said the project would be a perfect fit for his survey class.
“We’ve designed cars, rockets, airplanes,” he said. “This is our new focus. I know nothing about boats, but I do know physics.”
Teaching isn’t Giniger’s first career. After receiving his engineering degree, he worked in the aerospace industry for more than 20 years. At Sunset, his survey class focuses on engineering.
“That’s what I know,” he said.
There are a lot of lessons in this experience: buoyancy, currents and mapping.
Giniger’s students will design and build the boat, while there will be a schoolwide competition to name it. Then, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will take it to the equator and launch it into the Pacific Ocean. A GPS beacon will let Giniger’s students track the boat’s movement.
“We will hope that it’ll land in some foreign land,” he said. “It will probably land in Hawaii or Japan.”
His class is planning on putting contact instructions in a watertight container in the boat for whoever finds it. He said he also wants to throw in a Sunset-themed T-shirt and anecdotes about the school.
“It’s almost like a time capsule,” he said.
In early November, the kids walked to the Coos Bay Boat Building Center to chat with volunteers. The students checked out boats in various stages of completion to get ideas of their own.
This isn’t the first Oregon school to participate in this project. Waldport High students recently launched their boat, Phyxis. To track its movement, visit http://bit.ly/1tIroxy.
“There’s a chance it could go down if we don’t build it correctly or if there’s really rough seas,” Giniger said.
