This story was written by Lia Salvatierra, our new Education Reporter. Find more of Lia’s reporting here. Do you have an NKY education story? Email lsalvatierra@linknky.com.
At the sounding of a Viking horn, Villa Madonna Academy students shoved their life jacket-clad teammates in colorful cardboard contraptions off the banks of the school’s pond.
Shrieks filled the misty Friday morning air as the entire student body, decked in rainbow colors, cheered on the student duos who paddled feverishly with cardboard oars. Within seconds, some of the boaters had jumped ship, while others began overtaking their competition.
“Come on Liam!” shouted one parent, James Allen, watching his son compete for the fourth time in Villa Madonna’s Cardboard Boat Regatta.
It’s been nearly a decade since the school started hosting the annual event, which was born out of its physics class’ test of Archimedes’ principle for buoyancy. The tradition became so popular with high schoolers that Villa Madonna opened up the event to middle schoolers, who compete in a separate division. This year’s event featured 16 teams total.
The race comes with a few rules: students can only use cardboard, duct tape and two wooden dowels for paddles, and boats must be under five feet wide and seven feet long.
Allen’s son, a sophomore, has competed in the race every year with the same friend since seventh grade, when students are allowed to start participating.
“The very first year it was a real struggle with them trying to figure out how to design the boat, but now, by the fourth year, they’re doing most of it on their own,” Allen said.
He took his son’s team dumpster diving to find cardboard large enough for the construction project, another thing the students are now doing on their own, learning to scout for stores that sell refrigerators.
“So we’re also trying to teach them how to be more independent and problem-solve without us doing it,” Allen said.
At the end of the races, Joe Cordonnier, Villa Madonna’s middle and high school principal, rang in the winners with another sounding of the Viking horn, a nod to the school’s mascot.
This year’s winners, who also started competing as seventh graders, have come in first for three straight years using the same measurements, rebuilding their design from scratch.
Though their “Blue Raspberry” boat has many special features, including a fin, and a curved bottom, they think the winning trick is actually their oars, which are large with a pointed tip. But when asked about the event, none of them mentioned winning.
“Since our school’s really big on community, this is a fun way to hang out with your friends and build something, even though it’s a little competitive, it’s still in a fun way,” said Lina Kohler, a member of the winning team.
Cordonnier said the event is just one representation of the school’s larger focus on STEM. Villa Madonna’s tradition of racing boats on its pond can actually be traced back to when Cordonnier’s history students would build and race smaller wind-powered boats in his class. But eventually, the tradition was expanded and taken over by the physics department.
Physics teacher Scott Syfert, who took it over from his predecessor, especially pushes his students to participate.
“I see these projects just generate enthusiasm. And I see kids using really critical thinking skills, they use their imagination, they use their artistic abilities,” he said.
The winner in his class usually always gets Graeter’s, he said.
“It’s one of the best days of the year, actually,” Syfert said.
