News Archive
Grade 9 Boat Race
The Health and Career Education 9 class had some fun last week as they held their 6th annual boat race, a much-loved team-building activity that brings a bit of fun to the class and marks the start of spring. While it seems mother nature did not receive the memo this year, the competition still proved to be a fun yet wet experience for all Grade 9s in the class. After being divided into groups and tasked with designing and building a raft using recycled materials found around campus and a few bought items, the students then got to work. The end goal? To navigate their boat, with all team members on board, around a buoy on the lake.
Team building activities like this are invaluable because they allow the students to get to know each other better – with the teams purposely comprised of students from different Houses – fostering new connections within the School. Over two weeks, these groups immersed themselves in the design thinking process, a new element introduced this year, facilitated by science teacher Paul Doig. By way of this process, they went on to design a boat that would get them successfully around a buoy by using a paddle or sail, with the main rule being that the kicking of feet in the water to propel the raft was not allowed.
Last Friday was the final day of the two-week assignment, and the teams finally got to take their boats to the lake for the main event, a friendly yet competitive boat race to see whose design would withstand the challenge. Grade 9 student Tomas K. describes how it went for his team. “As a group, we got to planning how we would go about making a boat and making it float. We compiled a list of the materials we needed, sourced them, and then got to work assembling the boats. On the last day, we took them out to the docks, put them in the water and raced them. It was a lot of fun!”
Hands-on learning like this is key to ensuring students are getting the most out of their education by encouraging creativity, collaboration, and initiative, and providing students with a greater sense of autonomy and agency – another example of Shawnigan’s strategic pillar of Inspiring Academic Excellence in action.
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
