Ask any home do-it-yourselfer what's in their toolbox and they'll probably mention duct tape. As the old joke goes, it may not hold the universe together, but it's pretty darned handy for domestic fixing and fastening.
It even works surprisingly well as a waterproof boat-building material, as eighth grade science students at Wilmette's Baker Demonstration School learned when they raced almost a dozen vessels made of cardboard and duct tape on Feb. 5.
Thirty-four Baker students launched 11 boats in the school's indoor pool, then attempted to paddle the craft down the length of the pool and back. That's 20 yards each way, not far – unless one is sitting in a boat made from distinctly un-nautical materials, as some young sailors discovered when their boats capsized.
The top finisher was the red, gold and blue 'Superboat,' followed by 'Space Monkey Mafia' and 'Rainbowt."
But even if they didn't win or place, everyone who took part in this year's race benefited, science teacher Natasha Itkin said, because they were able to put what they learned in her laboratory classroom into practice, even if that practice got a little water-logged.
"There's an engineering component to it, where they have to think about the design ahead of time, create models, and test them," she said. "And then there are the actual physics involved, where they deal with buoyancy and density.
"It's a great project in the sense that they not only know the science, they were able to do something with what they knew."
Sometimes the young boat builders learned through failure, especially when it came to design, Itkin said. Teams that built round-hulled boats soon discovered their vessels simply rolled over.
"Some of them did a rowboat design and they found that a really sturdy flat-bottom design was best," she said.
Work on the boats, all of which had to be large enough for two crew members to fit inside, but no bigger than 6 feet by 8 feet, began last November, Itkin said. Teams kicked off the work in class, with a small kit of cardboard and duct tape, but most of the work had to be done in students' free time.
By the time their creators slid them into the pool, the boats had been transformed into a brightly-colored armada, courtesy of waterproof markers and a rainbow spectrum's worth of duct tape.
That students showed both discipline and whimsy in researching, building and navigating their vessels was no surprise to Head of School Dan Schwartz.
"They had fun, yes, but if they hadn't learned about buoyancy and density and capillary action, all the things that keeps a boat afloat, they wouldn't have been able to build one," he said.
The race has been a Baker tradition for at least the last 10 years, he said. That shows in the amount of community spirit the boat race engenders in younger students, staff and parents, he said.
"Everyone looks forward to it, especially the younger kids," he said. "You can hear a fourth grader saying, 'My sister's boat fell in the water, but mine won't!'''
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy
