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Smooth Sailing At JCC

Hillel eighth-graders study physics and have a lot of fun at the pool.

Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News

A

rchimedes' Principle in action,
a group of enthusiastic eighth-
graders, a busy Zumba class,
one innovative science teacher and one
very wet Torah studies teacher, a collection
of cardboard boats of various shapes, and
tiny boys and girls from the JCC's Pitt Child
Development Center happily marching on
their way to swim lessons.
It was 10:15 a.m. Wednesday, April
1, at the Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit indoor pool in West
Bloomfield, and things were jumping.
In Lanes 1 and 2: The eighth-grader stu-
dents from Hillel Day School in Farmington
Hills had come to test Archimedes' Principle,
which explains how the upward buoyant
force exerted on a body immersed in fluid
is equal to the weight of the fluid the body
displaces.
The day actually began about three weeks
ago, when Hillel science teacher David
Yenning was discussing physics and wanted
students to see how Archimedes' Principle
works. The boys and girls were divided into
small groups, made blueprints and small-
scale models and finally used nothing more
than cardboard, silver duct tape and plastic
to create boats for a race.
Students had one bit of advice from the
teacher: "Don't make your boat too narrow
or it will be unstable but other than that
"there is no right answer" as to how to build
a cardboard boat, Yenning said. "I liked it
that there was a lot of dialogue and that the
kids had to defend their thinking:'
On Wednesday morning, the boats sat
beside the JCC pool, waiting for the sailors.
There were boats in the shapes of rectangles
and triangles, squares, kites and something
kind of like a star, some bearing kids' art-
work and some with names: PAST Narhwals
(PAST, for team members Pelli, Aviva,
Shoshana and Tania, and Narwhals because
the boat was designed to look like the crea-
ture) and Dumbledore's Army: Patronus, a
reference to the Harry Potter series.
Then the students arrived, and the excite-
ment began.

Boat Races

It was two teams at a time as, using only a
single paddle, each boat captain raced to the
other side of the pool. Students screamed
and cheered, offering words of encourage-
ment as the cardboard boats sailed gracefully
— or not — in the water. There were eight
rounds in total, some in which victory was

Testing the waters at the JCC pool:
Katarina Tkac, Elianna Orel, David
Yenning, Leslie Baron and Hannah
Charlip

clear and a few in which it was neck-in-neck,
right to the end. Sometimes the captains
found themselves sideways or backwards, but
they remained focused and dedicated, deter-
mined, in the words of Winston Churchill, to
"never, never, never give up:'
All along the sides of the pool, fans
watched and admired. Among the guests
were JCC Center Day Camps Assistant
Director Donna Pelon and Programmer
Liam Grandidge, JCC Aquatics Director
Ronda Brodsky and Hillel Head of School
Steve Friedman.
While every round was thrilling, nothing
could top the final competition that pitted
a student project against a teacher's boat.
David Yenning designed the latter, deciding
to omit the plastic as a fun little experiment
but, interestingly enough, opting not to try
it out himself; instead, Torah teacher Seth
Korelitz was named commander. Boldly toss-
ing aside his shirt and jacket, finally down
to nothing but shorts, T-shirt, kippah and
tie, Korelitz stepped into the boat — only to
sink seconds later. He quickly rebounded and
pushed the boat to the finish line as students

2-

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As his boat takes on water, Noah Jacobs gets a hand from Leslie Baron and Josh
Cutler.

enthusiastically chanted his name.
After the races, the eighth-graders
headed off for sports in the JCC gym and
video games in the Teen Center. Emma
Zdrojewski, 13, of Farmington Hills, said the
race was a lot of fun. She was part of a team
that created a triangle-shaped boat, knowing
that "a box shape wouldn't flow very weir
she said, adding that one team member had
attended sailing camp, and they looked to
her for guidance.
Daniel Azariah, 13, of West Bloomfield
said that making the boats was both fun and

hard work. "Mr. Yenning gave us a piece of
cardboard, 60 x 91:' and then teams "copied
the elements" from blueprints and finally
used "a 10-foot-long piece of plastic to cover
the entire boat and prevent it from sinking:'
While all the students did a great job,
there had to be just one winner. The first-
place team included Bennett Grosinger,
Sam Zack and Daniel Zivian, whose names
will be inscribed on a trophy — "Kind of
like our Stanley Cup:' Yenning explained.
Appropriately enough, the trophy is made of
cardboard. ❑

May 7 • 2015

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