Ritenour high school engineering week
E-week Boat Races
March 15, 2018
It’s that time of year again. Engineering students geared up for a week of science, technology, and creation at Ritenour. E Week boasts the annual resurgence of PLTW, Ritenour’s program for hands-on sciences. As always, there will be cardboard boat races, design challenges in which students compete as the clock ticks, and a coronation: the crowning of PLTW’s King and Queen.
Junior Derick Franklin has one special part of E Week that resonates with him every year.
“My personal favorite would have to be the boat race. It’s a really fun experience [and] it helps you learn the different aspects of design that connect with engineering because you have to think about the best way possible to get your boat across,” Franklin said.
The boat races take place in the school’s pool, in which student-lead teams race, and avoid their boat deteriorating in the water, to the end, in competition with each other.
Student contributions to E Week, however, are not limited to tactile competition.
“Students contribute by presenting during E Week,” Franklin added;
During E Week, the gym is lined with tables, and presentations, often the product of projects taking place within PLTW classes. Students share their displays with an audience, walking them through the fundamentals of an experiment they have performed, sometimes complete with prototypes or experiments for onlookers to participate in.
One of the winners of the boat race, Junior Carlos Pacheco, shared his team’s technique for the creation of their boat.
“We constructed the boat the same way we have been for the past three years, wide and thick,” Pacheco said.
A member of the same winning team, junior Clarissa Gaona-Romero, said that their triumph was the result of teamwork and an abundance of effort.
“I feel proud. Our technique has proven to be effective for the third year in a row and it is really great to see our hard work paying off,” Gaona-Romero said.
Her favorite part of E Week was one that seemed to be the popular opinion.
“Without a doubt, my favorite part of E Week is the Boat Races because of the excitement and buildup there is to it. It’s always exciting to have a little competition and just overall a really fun experience to see what everyone comes out with every year,” Gaona-Romero said.
