Feburary 3, 2017

On January 26, students from Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario (CSCNO) schools stood out at the North-Eastern Ontario Regional Elementary Cardboard Boat Race competition for elementary schools. Some 30 teams from various Northern Ontario communities met in Espanola to measure their ingenuity. École Alliance St-Joseph (Chelmsford) students were dominant as they won the gold medal while the team from École Ste-Marie (Azilda) claimed the bronze medal.

The École Alliance St-Joseph (Chelmsford) team stood out among competitors through its capacity to build a quick and sturdy cardboard boat. The gold-medal winning team’s vessel navigated a distance of 25 metres in 17.69 seconds and carried a load of 595 pounds. This team consisted of Nicholas Tranchemontagne, Dylan Wagner, Éric Pelletier and Kyle Charbonneau. The bronze-medal winning team from École Ste-Marie, which benefited from the expertise of Josée Beauchamp, Ashley Côté, Sydney Grandchamp and Alexia Lemay-Evans, had a time of 26.28 seconds and its boat supported a load of 570 pounds.

No less than five CSCNO teams qualified to compete at the Provincial championship. As North-East Ontario gold and bronze medal champions, École Alliance St-Joseph and École Ste-Marie students will travel to Waterloo to take part in the Elementary Provincial Cardboard Boat Races on March 2. Also competing will be the squad from École Saint-Joseph (Wawa), the North-West gold-medal winning team. Two other CSCNO teams will also travel to Waterloo. École secondaire catholique Champlain (Chelmsford) and École secondaire Saint-Joseph (Wawa) will take part in the Secondary Provincial Cardboard Boat Races on March 1.

The competition, organized by Skills Canada for students from grades 7 to 12, requires each four-student team to design and build a boat. Students were evaluated based on the design and the construction quality of their boats, teamwork, organization, security, creativity, team spirit as well as the speed and resistance of their vessels. In addition to seeing the performance of their cardboard boats measured on water over a distance of 25 metres, the teams took part in a load challenge to determine how long their boats could carry a maximum number of team-mates without sinking.

The Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario offers a French Catholic Educational Program that is widely recognized for its excellence. The CSCNO provides a quality learning environment and academic program that runs from early childhood to adult education, with some 7,000 students in 27 elementary and 10 secondary schools.

INFO:

Paul de la Riva
Director of Communications and External Relations
Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario
(705) 673-5626, ext. 294
(705) 677-8195 – cell phone