Concrete Canoe Challenge Provides Students with Hands-On Engineering Experience

December 17th, 2024

Applications and Research Lab (ARL) Civil Engineering teacher Mike Zoltoski is committed to providing his students with hands-on educational experiences.

“Having come from a government engineering research laboratory, I know firsthand how important it is that students not only learn engineering principles, but also get to apply those lessons to real-world problems,” he says. “Our engineering program requires them to think both critically and creatively to solve many problems associated with a large project,”

Last year, Zoltoski used grant funding from Bright Minds, HCPSS’ education foundation, to enable seniors enrolled in the Civil Engineering and Architecture academies to participate in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Concrete Canoe Competition, a college-level engineering challenge. The students worked together throughout the school year, testing out different lightweight concrete mixes and designing and building models at different scales. The end result was a 22-foot, 400-500-pound concrete canoe that they paddled across Centennial Lake in May 2024.

This school year, with financial and technical support from the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, a new group of students are tackling the Concrete Canoe challenge. Thus far, the students have experimented with different concrete mixes and developed small-scale models. That work will continue in the coming weeks, as they work toward their goal of having a full-scale concrete canoe to launch prior to graduating in May 2025.

Although they still have a long way to go to complete the concrete canoe project, Zoltoski’s students say they have already gained valuable skills and insights.

“We’ve learned so much about different materials and techniques, as well as about the engineering process in general,” notes one student.

“We’ve also learned a lot about working in teams, how to build on each other’s strengths, how to ask each other for help when we need it, and how to keep ourselves organized and accountable,” adds another student.

“This project gives us a valuable window into the world of engineering and exposes us to college-level work,” observes yet another student. “But what really makes it great is being able to work with students who share your interests and want to see the project succeed as much as you do.”

The Technology & Engineering Educators Association of Maryland (TEEAM) recognized the HCPSS Civil Engineering and Architecture Program as the 2025 Program of Excellence award winner. The International Technology and Engineering Association (ITEEA) also selected the HCPSS program as one of its recipients for its 2025 Program Excellence Award, citing the challenges solved by the HCPSS Concrete Canoe team.

Additional information about HCPSS’ Civil Engineering and Architecture and Architectural Design academies is available online.