You're currently on the Canadian/International site. US customers visit bearmountainboats.com 🇺🇸

Canoes, Cameras, and Shop Class: Updates from the Q.C. Tech Shop

 

Late last month, vice principal Paul French of Quinte Christian High School reached out to share his latest project: a series of weekly updates from the Q.C. Tech Shop. Students at QCHS have built several canoes, but this marks the first opportunity to follow along online. Paul reports that students have enthusiastically added making and sharing canoe-building videos on YouTube to the weekly schedule.

 Call us biased, but we think building a canoe in a school setting is a fantastic educational opportunity. The time and attention commitment is intense, teaching patience, but the satisfaction in finishing a project is commensurate with the difficulty. It’s a task that calls on a diverse of set of skills, though many can be accomplished with simple hand tools. At the end students can be proud of having helped produce a beautiful, functional work of art, and in order to do so they’ll have to learn to coordinate as a team.

It’s a phenomenon we’ve witnessed before at Bear Mountain – our Kayakcraft companion DVD was actually filmed in a school. However, in this case one of the most interesting aspects of the Q.C. Tech videos is watching students themselves speak knowledgeably about the process. Paul frequently stops to ask the students what they’re working on and receives a detailed answer, from explanations of how they’re using a steambox to prepare the gunwales to why they need to scrape excess epoxy. It’s clear from the replies that these students aren’t just following directions, but learning the ins and outs of the craft.

Paul agrees, reporting that “students from across the spectrum of abilities and gifts continue to enthusiastically enjoy our canoe building class. For many it is the highlight of their day.” The experience doesn’t have to end when the canoe comes out of the shop, either. Q. C. Tech donates their work to fundraisers, so the money can be put to good use by the community. For Paul, that means the positive feelings cut both ways: “building canoes with high school students is one the most enriching and incredible experiences a school or a teacher could ever hope for.”

We’ve enjoyed all the updates so far, and will continue to follow progress at Q.C. Tech. You can check out a sample video in the embedded player above, or browse their channel over on YouTube.

Related Posts

My Love of Boats Began Early by Steve Ballew, Lavina, MI, USA
My Love of Boats Began Early by Steve Ballew, Lavina, MI, USA
By Steve Ballew My love of boats began early. I remember earning every waterfront merit badge that boy scout camp ha...
Read More
Worth the Wait! by Jim Slavin, Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada
Worth the Wait! by Jim Slavin, Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada
By Jim Slaven I started canoeing as a young boy and have been hooked on it ever since. I bought the ,"Canoecraft" b...
Read More
Dining Room Cedarstrip by Stuart Reid, Kanata, ON, Canada
Dining Room Cedarstrip by Stuart Reid, Kanata, ON, Canada
By Stuart Reid What Canadian outdoors enthusiast frequenting the back woods of Algonquin Provincial Park doesn’t wan...
Read More