Raider Regatta raises $960 for Relay for Life

Staff report

Warren

The first Relay for Life Raider Regatta raised $960 for the Warren City Schools Relay for Life team.

Fifteen cardboard boat race teams comprised of 87 students competed, and more than 200 people attended the event last month at the Warren G. Harding High School natatorium. All sixth- through eighth-grade science teachers from Lincoln K-8 School were involved, and Kelly Jadue, teacher at Lincoln K-8, was the event coordinator. The other science teachers are Jane Ameen, Becky Buchenic, Bud Rohrer and Karen Dahman.

The Raider Regatta is designed around a cardboard race that allows students the opportunity to design, build and race their best boating/floating ideas in an annual competition. The event allows students to apply the law of physics, Archimedes principle and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics concepts in a real-world situation.

Research, design and conceptual models were constructed by teams of three to 10 students. Students in sixth- through eighth-grade science classes participated in the event and sponsored their own boats to race.

Goals for this performance assessment were to increase STEM awareness, reinforce academic and technology content standards, foster teamwork and encourage critical/problem-solving skills.

Students had a time allotment of three weeks, two 4-by-8 sheets of corrugated cardboard and 227 meters of tape.

Students used imagination, the application of scientific models and mathematical formulas, boating terminology and the application of engineering concepts to create their vessels.

Sponsors for the event were Warren City Schools; O’Neill Concrete, owned by Robert O’Neill; and Pizza Works, owned by Bill Siwicki.