Students participating in the technology and engineering classes at Prairie River Middle School (PRMS) were given the opportunity of a lifetime this year. With the help of instructor Mark Pugh, these kids and their families were able to build wooden canoes from scratch.
Inspired by his own experiences attending a wooden boat school during the summer months, Pugh wanted to share this knowledge with his students by creating wooden canoes.
“You don’t see people doing this anymore,” Pugh said. “This type of work is a lost art. They just don’t teach this stuff in school.”
Eighth graders attending Pugh’s classes were given the chance to sign up for the project in February of this year. Parents were asked to provide $300 to cover the cost of materials. Construction took place after school every Tuesday and Thursday for several hours, allowing parents to participate and work with their children.
“I was trying to make this a family thing,” Pugh noted.
The plans for this project came from the book “Building the Six-Hour Canoe” by Richard Butz, John Montague and William Bartoo. According to Pugh, once the pieces for the canoe have been cut properly, in theory, it should only take about six hours to construct it. Made from marine plywood and clear pine, these canoes are for more than just show.
PRMS students Jack Bucknell and father Rob, Chevy Schmidt and father Kevin, and Luke Pfingston along with his brother Alex and father Mark all worked together to build three wooden canoes all from scratch. Unlike basic woodworking, these canoes provided a unique challenge and learning experience for these students through all of the curved and slanted wooden pieces that needed to be assembled, often at odd angles.
“It’s a huge amount of labor,” Pugh added.
Without much help from electric tools, students learned to use their hands to create these canoes, utilizing techniques like hand-planing to shape the wood they were working with.
The students and their families get to take home the canoes they worked on all semester. Pugh hopes to do this project again with students next year.