Building Cardboard Canoes Leaves Girls with Buoyant Feeling

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The Girls in Science and Engineering (GISE) week-long camp was an eye-opening experience for 94 seventh- and eighth-grade girls who had little or no idea of what engineering is all about.

Cinda-Sue Davis, director of the U-M WISE program, one of the sponsors for GISE, said that boys and girls take “essentially the same mathematics and science courses in high school. Still, more boys than girls consider pursuing careers in science and engineering. The GISE program introduces girls to a variety of science and engineering disciplines as well as to women who work in these areas.”

Of all the camp’s hands-on activities, perhaps the highlight was the Cardboard Canoe Competition, in which girls designed and built cardboard canoes, then raced them in the ‘47E Reflecting Pool.

Jamie Saville, assistant director for WISE, recalled the genesis of the Competition. “When a graduate student first suggested this event I thought, ‘That sounds interesting.’ After learning more about cardboard canoe competitions through the internet I thought, ‘This sounds like fun AND a great way to learn about engineering.’”

Davis added that the Cardboard Canoe Competition is “an exciting engineering-based team project that involves design, construction and testing. The girls love it while, at the same time, learning a little bit about the life and work of engineers. And the canoes are awesome!”

Michigan Engineering graduate and undergraduate students, as well as some middle-school teachers, supervised groups of three or four girls as they designed, measured and cut cardboard. Gina Wilson (MSE ‘01), a Greenhills, Michigan, middle-school math teacher, helped to run the activity. Lorelle Meadows, an assistant research scientist and lecturer in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (NAME), worked with NAME graduate student Amy Gooden to develop an interesting and instructive presentation about the design and hydrodynamics of vessels and what to consider when planning and designing these cardboard canoes.

“When designing their canoes,” Saville said, “the girls had multiple considerations, including bow shape, hull shape, water dynamics, weight distribution, the size of the paddler, paddle shape, time limitations and material limitations.”

The campers had to debate the merits and demerits of each of these considerations with their teammates in order to come up with their preliminary designs. They tested small models with weight and then modified their final plans based on these tests.

Each team started with the same supplies: a utility knife, paper, pencils, decorating materials and a 75-inch by 110-inch sheet of cardboard and 1500 yards of cellophane packing tape.

A Boatload of Rewards

GISE campers took away a knowledge of, interest in and appreciation for science, mathematics and engineering. And if the weeklong camp fulfills its mission, there’ll be an increasing number of campers who’ll take advanced math and science classes in high school. GISE organizers also hope that the camp inspires participants to attend the University of Michigan.

Saville said, “We try to reach all of these objectives through offering fun and exciting hands-on activities, tours of very impressive U-M labs, and presentations by dynamic U-M faculty and graduate students. The girls spent each morning of camp studying and doing hands-on activities in a particular subject area. This year we offered projects that focused on chemistry, computer science, engineering, human genetics, physics and robotics. These focus projects were developed and taught by U-M faculty, graduate students and a few undergraduate students. The campers spent afternoons in a variety of hands-on science and engineering activities, including group collaborative competitions such as the Cardboard Canoe Competition.”

Taking in new information and experiencing the practical aspects of engineering were the two primary objectives of the week. “But,” Saville said, “we really wanted them to have fun – we wanted to spark that lifelong interest in science, engineering or mathematics. We wanted to give them a ‘Gee Whiz!’ experience to show them that pursuing science and engineering is cool and fun and challenging and rewarding – not nerdy, and not just for boys.”

GISE at the University of Michigan is sponsored by the U-M WISE program in cooperation with the U-M Medical School; the College of Engineering; the College of Literature, Science and the Arts; and the Office of the Vice President for Research.

WISE, established in 1980, is a program dedicated to increasing the number of women students who choose majors, advanced degrees and careers in science, mathematics and engineering in fields where women are underrepresented. WISE pursues this goal by providing programs for K-12 students, undergraduates and graduate students