Hovercraft makers find a friend in Moby Dick

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This article was published 15/04/2010 (5734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Several Windsor Park-based students are hovering high on the scale of success after landing second place in a manufacturing competition for high schools.

With the help of staff members, hands-on Windsor Park Collegiate students Chynna Knockaert, Matt DeJonckheere, Elijah Berard-Froese and Victoria Popp spent more than five months designing and building a model hovercraft.

Their painstaking efforts were part of a competition called Dare to Discover, and they were among 10 high schools which recently competed in the finals at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Their silver-medal success was surpassed only by Tec Voc High School, while a team from Steinbach Regional Secondary School placed third.

The competition is sponsored by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Manitoba, based near Linden Woods.

Adriano Magnifico, program head of the Career Internship Program at WPC and a driving force behind the success of the students, said the quartet had to carefully consider different aspects of the manufacturing process.

“Aside from the fact that a hovercraft has many minuscule parts, the students were forced to come up with a business plan and then present it to the judges,” Magnifico said.

The Norwood resident and English teacher added that, while scientific knowledge was an important part of the project, the problem-solving skills students learned should prove invaluable.

“An interesting aspect of this is that some of the four became unlikely scientists. Most of them are from a humanities background, but their willingness to learn made them a great team,” Magnifico said.

The former River East Collegiate staffer also acknowledged a weight that can hang heavy on teenage shoulders.

“I think it’s ridiculous that students have to make a career choice at 16 or 17. They need to learn transferable skills and that’s what I’m trying to create here. To pigeonhole yourself at that age is just crazy,” he said.

One student team member said the hovercraft experience was worth all the hard work.

“At times it was stressful and there were lots of challenges, but I thought we did very well to place second,” said Chynna Knockaert, 17.

The Windsor Park resident admitted that ,while she’s no science whiz, the team benefitted from her “common-sense logic”.

Knockaert said the team dubbed the hovercraft Moby Dick, in tribute to the fearlessness and elusiveness of the famous literary whale.

Less elusive during one lunchtime workshop session was MLA Bidhu Jha (Radisson), who dropped by for a progress report.

“I’m very pleased to see these high school students build a working hovercraft. These are future builders of our industries and leaders of innovative businesses,” said Jha, whose interest in design stems from his background as a mechanical engineer.

Magnifico is also thankful for the support of Winnipeg businesses, such as CPC Custom Plastic Creations, Woodcock Cycle and Duha Color Services.

For more information about the competition, visit www.daretodiscover.ca.
 

simon.fuller@canstarnews.com