What’s Right With Our Schools: Normal Park Regatta

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF) – Students at Normal Park Middle School recently completed one of their biggest projects of the year. The kids built boats out of cardboard and duct tape. Then, they raced those boats. What they learned is a practical example of “What’s Right With Our Schools.”

7th grader Kyron Walker explains, “So, our boats design, I think we needed a little bit more tape. And, yeah, we’re having trouble with that.”

7th grade History Teacher Brian Fahey says, ” The regatta started about 15 years ago. We just wanted something that we can kind of all work on cross curricular. We’ve noticed kids needed more teamwork and team skills, and this was able to hit all of those at one time.”

7th grade English Teacher Kay Finney, ” The students take the things that they remember from the year and apply them to a physical project, a physical boat that they’re going to build.”

7th grader Penelope Petmecky adds, “We’ve been using like art in the design process, and then I feel like math in like the measurements, and then for science we’re kind of using like bits and pieces everywhere.”

Kyron Walker chips in, “So first we drew a line to see like the measurements, and then we use a cardboard cutter to like cut that to make it the height that the boat is supposed to be.”

Penelope Petmecky adds, “We made our like front more like dynamic, so it’s easier when we’re rowing, and we also made the base like really thick so we wouldn’t sink.”

7th grader Isaac Vanbrundt says, “We have a really good chance of making it all the way to the end. I feel like, based on the other boats, we got a really good shot.”

7th grade World History Teacher Brian Fahey says, “On race day, we arrive at the Chickamauga swim area, and we will do four stations for each class. In the history class, they’ll be working on some compass basics, learning how to just navigate by compass. In science, they work on physical change.”

7th grade Science Teacher Bri Budd says, “My students are making ice cream because they are changing from seventh graders to eighth graders. It’s our one last chemistry lab of the year where they’re exploring physical versus chemical changes.”

Brian Fahey adds, “In ELA class, they work on their cheers that they’re coming up with for their explorer to represent their team.
The math class, because there’s not a lot of math to do on site, our math teacher is going to cover all of our water and boat safety.
Then we run the race and we usually have two heats, and the top two teams in each heat will go for the final. And if there’s any other boats that are still afloat, we might throw those in at the last second too.”

7th grader Ryder Manning says, “I learned lots of stuff about how communication is the most important thing in the end. Everybody else just paddling, just going nowhere. ”

7th grader Kaydin Drake laments, “We didn’t do too well, we about sank immediately. It just flipped over on one side. I was a little bummed out that we sank because we thought we had a good boat, but nonetheless, it was fun.”

7th grader Everett Packer says, “We won, probably because of our communication, and also our determination. We had a really thick base to help it float, and we just used communication like when I said row everybody rowed.”

7th grade Math Teacher Michael Worley concludes, “You know at Normal Park, we try to focus on project-based learning. And this is a great way to see kids sort of put what they’ve learned in every class throughout the year, those leadership skills and sort teamwork to put together this boat.”