KINGMAN — The Kingman Academy Middle School held an eighth grade final science test at Kingman’s Centennial Park Pool. It is in the form of the school’s annual Cardboard Boat Race.
The winning boat was constructed by the team of Tylie Holyoak, Gwen Bartheld, and Alice Demke who was the pilot. Demke said the original plan was to have a two person crew but the craft turned out to be “not built for two”.
It worked out as Demke paddled a straight line to the finish while the boy’s bracket champion took a more circuitous route with Rychard Barahurst and Lucas McMillon as co-pilots. The third person on the boy’s design team was Dayne Carter. The boat was named the “U. S. Rubber Ducky”.
Eighth grade science teacher Shari Conner explained the educational value of the event, “Learning a little bit about surface area and buoyancy, mainly just having fun. It’s an end of the year project. They work in pairs of two or four people on a team. They’ve been learning about boat designs and what works better in the water. They build, they plan, they make models.”
The construction rules are direct and simple…ONLY duct tape and cardboard. Several contestants’ boats found these components less than seaworthy. However, the winning craft used a double hull design and proved to be quite waterproof. According to the winning pilot, Alice Demke, “Gwen actually designed the structure of the boat, but I came up with the idea of the thick walls. We decided that if we have a hollow area in the walls that it would be more buoyant. We were planning on having both of us, but it’s too small for both of us so we decided on me.”
There were some sidelights to the event. Conner said, “We have what we call “the boat vote”, which the whole school will come out and vote. It’s for best design, most likely to win, most likely to sink. Then at the end, the top girl and the top boy will race for the ultimate winner. They all think they’re going to win.”
Right away, there was one boat, “The Mighty Flamingo”, that was NOT going to win. Some would say it did win, in a way, as in pre-race voting it was selected as the “First to Sink”…and it did. The builders wish to remain anonymous.
