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Fourth Annual Barker Boat Race Held

By Staff | Oct 11, 2017
Youth from Paden City and Magnolia high schools participated in the Fourth Annual Matthew Barker Memorial Cardboard Boat Regatta.
Wetzel County Schools’ Paden City and Magnolia high school students gather in anticipation of the Fourth Annual Matthew Barker Memorial Cardboard Boat Regatta.

Paden City High School held its Fourth Annual Matthew Barker Memorial Cardboard Boat Regatta on Friday, Sept. 29. Students from Paden City and Magnolia high schools participated in the event. Students from Paden City Art Teacher Matt Kinnard’s class, and Magnolia Art Teacher Leslie Day’s class, made cardboard boats out of cardboard, duct tape, and paint. However, Mr. Kinnard noted, the students incorporated all school subjects into the project, including science, math, art and writing. Each group had to collaborate on the design of the boat while looking at historical boats from various cultures such as the early Viking ships to modern kayaks and the Native American influences. The students were also given a scale and formula to use that apply the laws of physics and math in determining the buoyance of the boat as well size necessary to hold two people. All of subjects get covered on some level as the students work to document and complete the boats.

Winners, from each school, will now head to Georgetown, SC on Oct. 21-22 to participate in the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show. Winners will present to more than 20,000 visitors who will tour the boat show. Students are seeking donations to fund the trip. Donations can be sent to Magnolia High School, Attention Leslie Day; or Paden City High School, Attention Matt Kinnard. The winning boat from Paden City was built by Landon Smith, Seth Bohrer, and Matthew Saxton. Magnolia’s winning boat was built by Lakin Young, Kyra Tharp, Bethany Brown, and Ashley Tharp.

Several years ago, the late Matt Barker was the first of Kinnard’s students to make a boat and have it float on the Ohio River and take on the challenge of applying the other subjects to his project. For four years now students have held the regatta in memory of Barker who was taken too early in life. The boat race is another way to help fund the Matthew Barker Scholarship as the school takes donations from the students in exchange for attending the regatta.

This year, for the second time, Magnolia High School students attended the regatta, as well as participated. This type of collaboration between schools as well as curriculum is known worldwide as STEAM, a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in five specific disciplines – science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics – in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Mr. Kinnard has made some of these part of the art curriculum, as many of the great masters like Leonardo Da Vinci did. Their art covered much more than painting and drawing.

Tyler County Sheriff’s Office was present for precautionary reasons, though thankfully there were no issues.