“I can’t believe building a boat would be this fun.“
“We actually moved pretty fast, yeah. we just started with the front and the back and we just started moving up from that.“
“It makes me feel like I’ve actually accomplished something.”
“I’m proud of myself for the work I did.”
Students who do not love school will often lead their teams and ask for more. I overheard: “Why is it that you’re so good at math here but in class you stink at it?” Reply: “I don’t know. I just get it here!”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you! This was so fun, thanks! Thanks so much for being there for us! We should do it again!”
From a few teachers and instructors:
“Taunts were replaced with compliments. Failures were met with encouragement rather than glee. “Please” and “thank you” replaced “give me that” and silence. Help was not requested and refused, it was initiated and accepted.”
“Building boats develops a variety of skills and habits of mind transferable throughout life. Spatial thinking, nimbleness with three dimensional perception and recall is a key to academic success.”
“According to the National Academy of Sciences, “We suggest that spatial thinking is at the heart of many great discoveries in science, that it underpins many of the activities of the modern workforce, and that it pervades the everyday activities of modern life.”
“Our testing shows that students’ spatial thinking skills grew by 56%. In addition to spatial thinking, building boats is a real-world application of mathematics. It also requires hand-eye coordination, safety skills, and above all, teamwork.”
“I love teaching boat building at the Haley because the students are so eager— they’ve been looking forward to building a boat since kindergarten.”
We’re about halfway to our goal, with 8 days left! We have an amazing 26 patrons, each chipping in what they can. Want to see more kids, and more reactions like this? Help us kick it over the top!
Donate now at Boatbuilding Comes to the Brickyard!
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