Contact: Maridith Geuder
If they float at all, a fleet of homemade canoes to be created next week by some 10th-grade campers will be in a class all their own.
More than 90 Northeast Mississippi high school students will be teaming with Mississippi State University architecture students to build cardboard boats. They will be attending a June 6-9 Youth Leadership Summit sponsored by the Tupelo-based CREATE Foundation.
Representing all 15 counties served by the foundation, the students will gather at the Crow's Neck Environmental Center near Tishomingo to learn team building and goal setting strategies.
Morgan Baldwin, the foundation's director of programs, said the canoe-building challenge helps accomplish the camp's goals.
"The activities are designed to show these kids that working together and solving problems within the Northeast Mississippi region are very important," Baldwin said.
Make no mistake: the boats won't be cute model size. Within a four-hour time limit, participants must design and construct navigable cardboard boats that can hold four people. That's right, four people!
MSU architecture students, who are quite accomplished at tasks such as this, will provide support and guidance for some 10 high school teams, said architecture Dean John McRae.
"This will be a great learning experience for everyone involved," McRae said. "I've done this exercise before and it's very exciting."
Once finished, the boats will be tested in a series of relay races. Architecture faculty members will judge the projects on economy of means, craftsmanship, aesthetics, navigation capabilities, and speed, McRae said.
Joining McRae will be faculty members Jane Greenwood, Michael Berk, Charles Calvo, John Poros, and Jason Vollen.