Cardboard boat race

US Navy personnel paddling cardboard boats in Guantánamo Bay
Some participants of the annual cardboard boat race on Suicide Sunday 2011 at the University of Cambridge.
The 2011 running of the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta in Alpena, Michigan.

A cardboard boat race, sometimes known as a boat regatta, is a popular construction competition for people of all ages, with target audiences for competitions ranging from elementary-school students to college students and adults.

The earliest documented cardboard boat regatta was a class assignment created by Richard Archer at Southern Illinois University in 1974,[1] and since then, the practice has only expanded, with an "International Cardboard Boat Regatta" occurring annually in New Richmond, Ohio.[2]

According to an article published in the Middle School Journal, cardboard boat racing can be used as a way to get students interested in STEM fields by approaching an engineering challenge with "hands-on" learning.[3]

  1. ^ MacLaren, Grant (December 30, 2007). "Cardboard Boats". grantmaclaren.com. Design Department: Southern Illinois University. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  2. ^ "A Small Town in Ohio Is Home to the World's Only Cardboard Boat Museum". Smithsonian Magazine. July 30, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  3. ^ Omundsen, John (2014). "Cardboard Boat Building in Math Class". Middle School Journal. 46: 3–9.