Boat Float Lets Gilmour Academy 8th Graders Float

From Gilmour Academy: The idiom “whatever floats your boat” might be the motto for eighth graders at Gilmour Academy’s Middle School. Each year, the students participate in the annual favorite – Boat Float. For weeks leading up to the race, which was held Monday, April 23 in the school’s natatorium, students have been building their vessels in the classroom.

The Boat Float is an integrated art-science project in which students design scale models in art class and build full-size boats in science class, then race them in the pool as they explore experimental design, density and buoyancy. The students’ mission is to design boats that can carry student teams from one end of Gilmour’s pool to the other. Students began work on the design component earlier this semester and spent the last few weeks building their boats out of cardboard, duct tape and PVC pipes. They also spent time at The Foundry, where students measured volumes of sailing and crew boats to determine density and water displacement. Additionally, they learned how to row in the indoor rowing tanks and analyzed the power output of their rowing stroke on the erg machines.

At the Boat Float, the grand prize was awarded to Angelina Lonardo ’22, of Twinsburg, and Anna Wierup ’22, of Shaker Heights, whose boat, “The Swedish Fish,” recorded the best time.

About Gilmour Academy

Gilmour Academy is a Catholic, independent, coeducational, college-preparatory school. It is sponsored by the Congregation of Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Ind., and offers a Montessori program beginning at 18-months-old and a Lower School, Middle School and Upper School. A boarding program is offered to students in Grades 7 through 12. It is located at 34001 Cedar Road in Gates Mills, Ohio. For more information about Gilmour Academy, visit www.gilmour.org and follow Gilmour on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Photo courtesy of Gilmour Academy