What is the Ingenious Cardboard Regatta?
The inaugural Ingenious Cardboard Regatta is a maritime challenge designed to inspire the interest of young people in STEM.
Throughout the programme, engineers from the Belfast Maritime Consortium, along with W5's Learning and Engagement team, will promote marine engineering through interactive activities and conclude with a regatta race of cardboard boats powered by the student seafarers.
School Workshops
Throughout the programme, students from participating schools take part in theory and practical activities to explore fundamental concepts and develop their engineering knowledge. Students' understanding will then be applied during hands-on sessions where they will research, design, build and test a cardboard boat to hold a maximum of two students.
Each of the sessions have theory, practical activities and at least two demonstrations. These sessions are designed to flow into the next with the following themes:
Session 1: Introduction (Meet the engineers, history of the lifeboat and Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and water safety.)
Session 2: Forces
Session 3: Stability
Session 4: Materials
Session 5: Buoyancy
Session 6: Maritime Engineering
Take a look at Dundonald High School in action during one of their school workshops
Students from Dundonald High School completed their second school workshop, taking a closer look at forces and the role it can play in their boat design.
Throughout the workshop, these pupils discussed what a force is, the difference between balanced and resultant forces, why friction is important and what a moment is.
To conclude the session, each student created a boat sail using a waterproof material. The aim of the challenge was to balance the object, allowing it to remain upright in water.
