CSCNO students make waves at cardboard boat competition

Students from Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario (CSCNO) won the gold, silver and bronze medals at the North-Eastern Ontario Regional Elementary Cardboard Boat Race competition Jan. 28.

No less than 28 teams from various Northern Ontario communities met in Sturgeon Falls to measure their ingenuity.

École Ste-Marie (Azilda) won the gold medal, École Saint-Joseph (Wawa) earned the silver medal while the team from École Alliance St-Joseph (Chelmsford) claimed the bronze medal.

Not only did the winning boat navigate a distance of 25 metres in 25.51 seconds, it was able to carry a load of 458 pounds.

The team from Chelmsford’s École Alliance St-Joseph had a time of 22.97 seconds and its boat supported a load of 328 pounds.

Wawa’s École Saint-Joseph saw its team complete the distance in 29.37 seconds while supporting the maximum load of the day, no less than 588 pounds.

The students from all three schools will travel to Waterloo to take part in the Elementary Provincial Cardboard Boat Races on March 5.

The competition, held by Skills Canada for students from Grades 7 and 8, requires each four-student team to design and build a boat.

Students were judged on the design and construction quality of their boats, teamwork, organization, security, creativity, team spirit as well as the speed and resistance of their vessels.

In addition to seeing the performance of their cardboard boats measured on water over a distance of 25 metres, the teams took part in a load challenge to determine how long their boats could carry a maximum number of team-mates without sinking.