S.T.E.A.M 9
Ashwin Boat Race Feb.11,2025
This was one of my most fun experiences with the S.T.E.A.M program. We had been informed that we had an upcoming project called the Hyde Creek boat race. First I was wondering what this project could be but I remembered my cousin had done this last year in S.T.E.A.M and had told me about this. It’s where we go to Hyde Creek in I week and we go to Hyde Creek and build our boats and race in the water.
We had started planning around 1 and a half weeks earlier. The teacher had said we could get into groups of 4. In my group there was Owen, Daniel, Luca, and myself, we had started planning how our boat was going to look and how we could add supports to make sure we didn’t fully focus on the design of the boat because there’s no point of designing the boat if it’s going to sink so that’s why we planned where we were going to add supports to ensure that our boat doesn’t sick when we get into the water. Once we were done designing we started thinking about who would get into the boat. I suggested that I get into the boat since I weighed the lightest out of all 4 of us.
Everyone agreed that I should get into the boat so that was final then we started discussing who would get into the boat next because Mr. Chucka had said that after the race, we would move our boat to the side with the people still inside it and see who’s boat would stay afloat the longest but if the boat’s don’t sink then another group member would have to enter the boat as well. We had decided that Daniel would get into the boat next since he weighted the least after me and then after Daniel, Luca would get into the boat and after Luca, our final option was Owen, if we even got to that point. So then everything was planned out and we were just waiting for the big day which was on Thursday. When the big day arrived we had to be at Hyde Creek around 8 30 But I arrived a little late at 9 (oopsie).
When I arrived our teachers were giving instructions about what time we would start building and what time lunch would happen and then finally the race. We had gotten our materials which were 2 huge pieces of cardboard, duct tape, waterproof tape, and a razer cutter. 
Me and Owen started working right away and had started with the base. We were trying to get help from Luca and Daniel as well but they weren’t helping much because they were wandering around and weren’t helping us build the boat. These things happen in a group so it was fine but this just tells me to choose my partners wisely. So me and Owen were building the boat and I gave Owen an idea of what we could do differently at the front than we had planned.
He asked me what and I told him that instead of making a normal sharp front of the boat we could make a slanted front so the water would hit toward the front but it wouldn’t leak inside and it would help move the boat forward. Owen thought it was a great idea so that was what we did. We had finished pretty early around 30 minutes before we were going to eat lunch so me and Owen started adding more cardboard and duct tape on the areas where we said we should add supports so that’s what we did. Then we added the waterproof tape all around the boat to ensure there wouldn’t be many leaks in the boat so that’s what we did which helped.
After we had finished our boat we saw other teams creating names for their boat so Owen and I created a name as well we named it A+O which stands for Ashwin+Owen. We thought it was pretty funny and so did our fellow S.T.E.A.M students. Then we ate lunch and then our teachers said it was time to change because the race was about to start and I was so excited.
I quickly changed into my swimming shorts and walked to the pool where everyone else was with their group and boats. Then the first race had begun and I was looking for ways people paddled. A common way I had seen was people had cardboard paddles in their hands but a disadvantage I had seen with those was they had begun to get soggy and weren’t pushing as well as with hands so I had stuck with using my hands. I had to be put into the third race. Owen had jumped into the pool to stabilize the boat so I could get in. I got into the boat and it held up pretty good. I had sat down in an awkward position but if I repositioned the boat would have tilted over so I stayed put. I was waiting for the other students to get into their boats so while I was waiting people were coming over towards me taking pictures. I was so into posing and smiling that when the teacher said go I was so unprepared. I quickly got myself together and started paddling with all my might since I was distracted my boat started turning into the other lane, so I quickly steered back into my lane and saw that most of the other contestants were ahead of me. So I put all the strength I had into paddling and was gaining a lot of speed while paddling my arms were getting scratched by the cardboard but it didn’t matter to me much since I had a race to win.
When I reached the end I didn’t even know what place I had got but I’m pretty sure I had gotten second place. After the race had ended the teacher told us to move our boat to the side and we were going to see whose boat would stay afloat the longest. So I was just waiting in the book for I don’t even know how long but after a while the teacher said we had to add our second person from our group so we were looking for Daniel but he wasn’t there anymore so we thought he wandered off somewhere again but we didn’t have time to look for him because if we didn’t add our second person soon we would have been disqualified so Owen had quickly got into the boat. 
The problem was that he was the heaviest out of the group and we were planning on him to get into the boat last so when he entered the boat our boat didn’t last 2 seconds and sunk. Overall we had a great laugh over it and it was a really fun experience especially since I was the one in the boat. I loved doing this and hopefully, I can try and do this again in grade 10 S.T.E.A.M. Thank you for giving us this great experience S.T.E.A.M. teachers I appreciate it.