Boating Experiment a Super Soaker

After weeks of number crunching and formulas, the time finally came this week for 50 middle school students to don swimsuits and put scientific theory to the test.

Students taking an “Imagineering” class at Cal State Northridge floated some of their ideas at the CSUN pool Thursday.

Five-member teams splashed around in simple wooden boats they had designed using ordinary materials. They had two goals, neither of which proved easy to attain: staying afloat and successfully sending two people per boat across the pool.

“We called ours the Anchor because we knew it was going to sink,” said Hakiem Alhamdau, 12, of Northridge.

In fact, all of the boats managed to achieve buoyancy for at least a few minutes. Some took on water due to less-than-perfect engineering, while others were playfully swamped by the competition.

Teacher Dave Van Dusen, an eighth-grade science teacher at Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar, said he expected some aquatic high jinks.

“This gives them a hands-on experience with science and engineering,” Van Dusen said. “They did everything for these boats.”

Slender, sharply pointed boats had the advantage in the race across the pool. So did boats that managed to avoid the splash-fight fray.

Canoga Park resident and winning team member Edwin Moradians, 13, divulged his secret. “It was all about the paddles,” he said.