The buzzing around the shed has slowed due to the students going back to classes. Many students have been back to work after school and in their extra time. Peter even came in the morning of delayed start to help. Such dedicated boat builders! Community volunteers have been filling in and are a great help in moving the project along.
The first plank was screwed into place today. The first two planks are the most difficult to fit and when they are in the planking will go much faster. The shipwrights start at the center bottom and work each side symmetrically, that way there is much less stress on the frame.
Here is a short video of the shipwrights in action.
One of the goals of this project is to share it with others both locally, nationally and internationally. To share our project, we have made the following video for Edutopia, the George Lucas Foundation, which supports project based learning.
" Project learning, also known as project-based learning, is a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explore real-world problems and challenges, simultaneously developing cross-curriculum skills while working in small collaborative groups.
Because project-based learning is filled with active and engaged learning, it inspires students to obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they're studying. Research also indicates that students are more likely to retain the knowledge gained through this approach far more readily than through traditional textbook-centered learning. In addition, students develop confidence and self-direction as they move through both team-based and independent work.
In the process of completing their projects, students also hone their organizational and research skills, develop better communication with their peers and adults, and often work within their community while seeing the positive effect of their work." more from Edutopia. . .
It is the last week we have to work on the project before school begins. It seemed like everyone was working really hard, that was good. There was a lot going on, people were working on the patterns for the planking, the pattern for the tiller, the glueing and planing some frames, filming, tracing and cutting out the rudder, some people did some other work on the side. In my opinion we got a lot done today but that is my opinion. We still have a lot to get done but we are on our way. Maine's First Ship Student, Kelsey Brick
Today, we had a special visitor. He is Don Carrigan, from WCSH6. He is doing a story about the Shallop Project. The crew arrived around 10:00 and stayed for the rest of the work day. Mr. Carrigan also interviewed some of the kids and volunteers. Today, we glued some more body frames together. The frames were cut into small pieces, so the frame would be curved. We also worked on planing the stern post. It was too wide before we planed it. Some of us worked on carving oars into the right shape. We had a lot of visitors come in to the workshop. They seemed to be interested with the project. To see the video WCSH6 made click here. Maine's First Ship Student, Peter Kosakowski
--Matt interviewed Don Carrigan for a new "Careers" project he is working on with Eric Varney for the freshman's first day of school 2010 at Morse High School.
Today, there were multiple projects going on. Some people were working on putting the stern post in place. This is a piece of wood that branches off of the keel. It involved drilling holes for the bolts.
Others were working on making frames that go on the boat. They had to run the wood sections through a thickness plane to make them even. The thickness plane cuts off the top of the wood that is run through it.
The rest of us were working on oars. Some oars are being cut and shaved to length, and some are being cut out of blocks of wood.
Today it was a rainy day. Only 8 kids showed up today. We finished making the battens to go around the outside of the boat. We had to plane the scarfs and make them flat. Scarfs are when you cut the wood at a slant so that there is more surface and then you glue two pieces of wood together. One of the battens broke when we tried to put it against the boat so we had to fix it.
Some of us also worked on oars.We also attached the knee to the keel with bolts. To make the bolts we had to cut a threaded rod to the right length and put bolts on each end. Maine's First Ship Student, Nick
and in their extra time. Peter even came in the morning of delayed start to help. Such dedicated boat builders! Community volunteers have been filling in and are a great help in moving the project along.
The first plank was screwed into place today. The first two planks are the most difficult to fit and when they are in the planking will go much faster. The shipwrights start at the center bottom and work each side symmetrically, that way there is much less stress on the frame. 
