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  • Students prepare their cardboard boats at the starting line of the Mankato East pool on Thursday, the last day of school. Tanner Kent

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  • Mankato East ninth-grader Mason Bultje paddles his craft toward the finish line during a boat race against fellow classmates in Dave Burgess’ advanced physical science class. Tanner Kent

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June 9, 2011

School’s (not quite) out for the summer

Teachers get creative to keep students engaged at the end of the school year

By Tanner Kent Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO — Teaching can get tricky when the sun starts shining.

A student’s pulse begins to quicken. Steps become lighter. Bodies grow fidgety as thoughts drift toward afternoons at the beach, trips to the park, graduation parties and goodbyes.

Designing a lesson or project that cuts through such wondrous distractions can be difficult.

But it can be done.

“Oh, definitely yes,” said Dave Burgess, Mankato East science instructor, when asked if it’s possible to keep students engaged in schoolwork, even on the last day of school. “They’ve been working hard.”

And here’s the proof:

On Thursday morning — a.k.a. the last morning of school — the students in Burgess’ ninth-grade advanced physical science class lined up at the edge of the pool. A few were wearing swimwear and all stood beside cardboard boats, most of them larger than a bathtub and a few equally adept at holding water.

For two weeks, these students have been employing the Archimedes principle (any floating object displaces its own weight of fluid) and a series of mathematic equations to build these boats. At the conclusion of the unit, students raced their craft in the school’s pool. The race, of course, was for fun. But the performance of their creation was judged for a final grade.

The winner was a shark-themed boat skippered by Chandra Bouma and named “Bruce” — the Great White from “Finding Nemo” fame. Team members credited the success of their boat to the fact that they pre-tested their ideas.

“We made models and found the right design,” Mara Soupir said.

When asked how the project rated with other end-of-the-year assignments, team members agreed Tatum Schulz’s assessment:

“This one’s the best,” she said.

For the complete story, check out Friday's print edition or e-edition.

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