NORTHRIDGE : Canoe-Building Kids Get Lesson in Engineering

Sink or swim, the kids in Jim Belg’s Imagineering class have learned a lot about science, engineering and even corporate management.

The 25 imagineers of Belg’s first-period class launched the wooden canoes that they designed and built on Wednesday morning in the main gym pool at Cal State Northridge.

Part of CSUN’s Summer Academic Enrichment Program for Secondary School Students, imagineering teaches youngsters ages 12 to 14 applications of science. This year’s project was to construct canoes that can hold two people at a time.

“They learn how to build a boat and do things like define its volume,” said Belg, who teaches science at Patrick Henry Middle School in Granada Hills during the school year.

At the beginning of the course, the students form small groups--boat-building companies--each of which is responsible for drafting the plans for the canoe, building a model, constructing the boat, and keeping track of all the labor and expenses that went into the process, said Belg’s assistant, Marna Kagle.

Kagle, who has just finished her first year as an aerospace engineering major at UC San Diego, took the class six years ago and has been helping out in the summers ever since. “I really like that it’s hands-on instead of reading it in a textbook,” Kagle said.

One student, 11-year old Lily Hsu, said she prefers the hands-on approach to learning science. “You remember it longer. When you read it from a book, you’re gonna’ forget it,” said Lily, who raced her company’s canoe with fellow shipmate Audrey Young, to place second out of four.

Matthew Kaufman, the CEO of his company, was a little befuddled by his canoe, named the USS Minnow (after the ill-fated vessel in “Gilligan’s Island”) because the caulking was falling apart. It took last place in the race. “It’s not exactly watertight,” Matthew said.

Chris Wu, who raced the Minnow, attributed their disappointing finish to “a bad oar.”