English Entry 2: Fiction

This assignment asks you to use some creativity. Write a piece of fiction. Use your imagination. The only criteria I will require is that your writing involves kayaks. Check back for a list of ideas that we came up with in class...

Reflection Entry One

Reflection Project Entry One:

Describe our first trip on the water...
Who? What? When? Where? Why? Set the tone. Paint the scene. Spin the yarn!

Also, what were your feelings getting into the boat for the first time? Were you in the boat we made or were you in a boat that we borrowed from Mayhew? How do you think you would have felt if you were in the other type of boat?

Finally, write about the experience and your expectations. Were you excited about the trip or were you dreading it? Often times having really high or really low expectations can influence behavior and how you experience things. Look back on the adventure, reflect on your behavior, and talk about expectations.

English Assignments for Trip Days

While we are doing the kayaking trips, we will have limited opportunities for in-class English lessons. Don't worry we thought of that. I will assign a series of writing assignments that ask you to describe our trips and reflect on the experiences. Each assignment will be posted on the blog and I will provide written instructions the days of our trips. It is your responsibility to post your work. I will provide feedback to your first posting and you are expected to resubmit your work with appropriate improvements for credit. Your collected work will be graded as a project for English.

First Trip This Week

Sometime this week we are going on our first kayaking trip with the boat we made and I'll be the one using it. the place we are going is to the top of the Pemi. River and it will only be for a couple of hours because our class is about three hours long. What we are going to learn is how to stay balanced and have fun.

From Mike

Latest Pictures, Trailer Pickup

I have had several requests for up-to-date pictures of the boats. Next week we will be on the water learning basic kayaking skills.

No students today- NRHS Career Day and Spring Fling are happening at the High School right now. I am in the down town classroom planning our trips and preparing to pick up a boat trailer, life jackets, and paddles at Camp Mayhew around 1:00pm.

Todays Progress

Today we made the seats for the kayak. We made the seats out of neoprene foam. We are now working on the straps that will hold the hatch down.

Customizing and Cutting

Today we are making custom designs and cutting a hatch for the boat it looks really cool...

Sanding Fun Fun!!!!!!! NOT

Well today we went outside and it was cold and we sanded the top of the boat so it is smooth. We can pant it or if you want, put on more epoxy. We are going to put the epoxy on so you see the wood color. Do your own paint the way you like it.

Personal Project

Assignment: Choose a project to work on during Challenge class and at home. The project must be finished on or before it is due: the last day before finals week. This is for part of the final grade in Challenge Class.

Guidelines:

-You may work in groups

-You must fund it; on your own, or with “fund raising”

-You must be able to work on it during Challenge Class

-It must be legal (obviously)

-You are responsible to find the equipment needed

Requirements:

To get a passing grade, you must:

• Type a proposal for what you will do onto the Challenge Blog

• Choose a project that is challenging for you.

• Show effective problem solving skills

• Show effective group/people skills

• Present what you have done, and what you learned in some way to the instructor and the class

Some Suggestions:

- Put on a community breakfast with food from Shop n’ Save; challenge yourself to get more than 15 people to attend

- Build a bike

- Build something simple with wood

- Make your own blog

- Design a skate board logo, deck, or sticker

- Design a Alt Wheels sticker and get it made

- Make a Challenge Class ’08 yearbook

The Search for the Right Paint Goes On

It is down to the wire for the boat building; this next week it will be time for boat using.

We need a final protective coating for the boats, something that will protect against UV from the sun and give it a nice finished look.

I have been researching types of paint outside of class.


We need something that:

• will stick to epoxy
• is environmentally friendly
• will protect the boat
• will not flake off when stressed
  
• is as cheap as we can get

Oil based house primer paint- Cheap, but has many volatile chemicals during painting and drying. The jury is still out on how it effects the environment when dry. some states have banned the sale of oil-based paints in gallon sized containers and up because of environmental problems.

Acrylic latex porch and floor paint- still cheap, less volatile chemicals, may not stick as well to epoxy, may not be a durable.

I think we should test the latex paint, that way we can paint it on with out having to use a respirator mask. It will impact the environment less as well.

What does everyone else think?

Go Get Some Fiber

WE had to cover the kayaks with fiber glass tape. The way we did it is we put epoxy on the bottom and then put the fiber glass tape over the epoxy and then put epoxy over the fiber glass tape. The way we spread it on the kayak is we used a brush. Thats what we used yesterday.

Fiber Glass The Seams

We glued the fiber glass tape over the seams to the sides of the boat. We also put epoxy over it and then we put the fiber glass on the boat as well. We used regular epoxy to "paint" the fiber glass to the boat. It is called painting the weave. It all is a pain in the butt and it's really hot out when we do the work outside, it kinda sucks.

New Blogging Style, Faster Updates

The blog has grown. Now that we have an up-to-date blog with a good body of information, we can start telling people to look us up on the internet.

To stay current with what we do in class and on our kayak project, I would like to try a new posting style. Everyday someone will post an entry on what has happened since the last post. Only one person has to post on their assigned day.

This entry should be a personal reflection. It should be in your own voice and should contain your own personal experience and thoughts.

For Example:
5/10/08
Buying Paint
I had to find out what kind of paint we can use for the outside of the kayaks. It needs to be durable and not harmful to the environment. The paint also must protect the epoxy from the harmful effects of sunlight. So far I know that oil based paint will stick the best to the epoxy, but we don't know if it is still harmful to the environment after it is dry. Things are getting down to the wire; I hope we stay on schedule.
---Ryan

This "personal reflection" style of post is what many people use on their blog.

Monday- Shawn
Tues- Mike
Wed- James
Thurs- andy
Fri- Adam

(If someone is absent the next person in the order posts and the absent person switches with them. )

Seeling the Inside and Tracing the top

We just got finished sealing the inside of the boat. We seeled it with oil based primer. We painted the whole inside of the boat with the primer. It acts like a water sealent so that way no water gets inside.
Now we are in the process of tracing the top of the boat. That's the easy part. Put a large piece of luan plywood across the top of the boat and trace it. Then you would cut it out and then glue it and even use nails to make sure that it is sturdy.

Nailing the Bottom

Once you have the bottom cut out to its correct shape you first you spread the glue on the chinelog. The glue we used was Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue. This is a good choice because it is waterproof. You place the bottom of the kayak on the chinelog. Then you nail the perimeter of the boat to the whole chinelog.

Blog Entry III: Putting it all Together

We need to play some catch-up. Much work has been done on the boat since we last posted and we need to fill in all the blog viewers on what has happened.
Once this round of entries is complete, we will move to a more effective blog posting method. Each day one student will be assigned to post an entry explaining what went on in class that day. Blog viewers will be updated everyday on our progress and the student will need to finish the entry by the end of class.

We need to finish these entries by Tuesday, so we can catch-up the blog to where we are with the boat.

Mike- plane chine logs to fit the bottom level
James- nail and glue the bottom
Adam- plane sheer clamps level to fit top
Shawn- sealing the inside, tracing the top

Follow the same entry comments from Blog Entry II

Bulkheads

I helped by putting in the bulkheads. The bulkheads are the pieces of wood in the middle of the boat. There are three of them spaced out in the boat's inner hull. They are for support so that the boat doesn't crush. They give the boat a v-shape. To build the bulkheads, you had to trace them on plywood with a stencil. Then we had to cut them out and shape them to the right size.

Scarfing The Sheer Clamp And Chine Logs

The sheer clamp is the thin long piece of pine at the top of the side panel. The chine log is a piece of pine that runs the length of the boat were the bottom. The sheer clamp is the part that you would nail the top to. The chine log is the piece of pine that is used to nail the bottom on. The boat is 15.5' long and you can only buy the pine in 10' long sections and thats why you need to make a joint. The scarf joint is when you cutt to pieces of wood and glue them together. The way ou cut them would be at an angle the angle we used is 6''. Then you would need to glue them together with a special type of wood glue. Then you would need to press them together with clamps to make sure it stays in place...