The 2019/29 school year marks the 5th offering of this unique class where students have an opportunity to not only learn about Natural Resources and how they affect us, but also about various types of traditional watercraft and the cultures that created each. By year's end, each student has built a solo watercraft (specifically a Cajun pirogue) and paddle to use in a class trip, which upon passing the class, they will take home at no cost. 
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                  Natural Resources 
To the right is a slideshow of a few of our activities regarding natural resources. At the beginning of each school year, much of our time is spent conducting water quality studies of the school's Quarry Pond. A quick paddle in a few pirogues introduces the students to what they will be building during the school year and paddling in the spring.
School property contains several apple trees we occasionally prune for better production and each year the students harvest a few buckets of apples and press them to make cider.
Later in the fall, we team up with MiCorp personnel to conduct a water quality study of the Slapneck River by surveying the aquatic benthic macro-invertebrates that live in it.​ 
           

​             Building our Boats
The Cajun pirogue is as synonymous with southern bayous as canoes are of the north country. We chose this design because of its relative ease of construction and its exceptional paddling qualities.
The building of each student's boat requires a team effort. Starting with assembly of the frames, we work together all the way through to the application of the epoxy and fiberglass on the hull. Individual work begins after that with sanding, the creation of unique paint themes and finally the construction of a paddle and a seat. You can follow our progress throughout the year on the slideshow to the left.
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                                                     Continued Collaboration with Ducks Unlimited
   The 2018/19 school year saw the students put their boat building skills to use in a cooperative effort with Ducks Unlimited (DU). Community member Johnny Lucas thought that we could build a punt boat similar to one of his then donate that boat to a local DU chapter that could raffle it off to raise money for wetland habitat improvement. Through the help of key DU volunteers Rod Larson and David Bowers, this project grew to the state level and the entire class was sponsored to attend the State Convention in Lansing this past summer. The name Adam Smith was drawn as the winner of the punt boat package during the Convention Banquet. Adam surprised us all when he donated it back to DU so it could travel to the National Convention in Orlando in the spring of 2020 where it could continue to raise money for conservation. Another surprise came when the students and myself (their teacher) were honored at the State Convention Banquet with Tribute letters signed by Governor Whitmer, Senator McBroom and Representative Cambensy. This fall Senator McBroom and Representative Cambensy presented these letters to each member of the 2018/19 class in front of the Superior Central student body.
   This year's class proudly continues this collaboration through the construction of a camouflaged 14 foot pirogue. When finished, it too will help raise money for wildlife and habitat conservation. 
 

COVID-19

 In mid-March all public schools in Michigan were told to close our doors and not come back for 3 weeks. Of course the virus had not run its course by then and 3 weeks turned into the rest of the school year. This creates a real problem for project-based classes where student/teacher interaction must take place in the presence of the projects at hand. If there is an upside to the shutdown it would be that this year I had decided to focus on boat-building much earlier in the school year than normal with the idea that we would be able to spend all of our spring class time working outside on Natural Resources Independent Projects. Obviously the springtime work did not happen but the boats were already partially painted by the time school was dismissed.
During the last week of May all of the student's boats, paddles, seats and life-jackets were delivered along with whatever painting supplies they needed to put the finishing touches on the boats. I have asked all of this year's students to take a few pictures of their finished boats on the water and as they come in these pictures will be uploaded to this site.  -Tim Bliss