Bedford Sackville Community Herald

Career development teacher Nick Crowe, centre, helps student Nick White, right, staple a cedar strip during a learning strategies canoe-making course at Sackville High School last week. The students are building the canoe as part of a course that helps students figure out how they best learn, then apply those skills to improve their academic performances. (PETER PARSONS / Staff)

IT’S NOT Noah’s Ark, but a boat some Grade 10 boys are building is floating some students’ academic careers.

Eleven boys at Sackville High School are participating in a new course called Learning Strategies, which entices students to finish schoolwork by rewarding them with the hands-on activity of boat building.

If students’ schoolwork hasn’t been completed, they work on assignments during the Learning Strategies class.

"Most of us did have a hard time last semester," said student Travis Muggah. "We don’t like working in classes. It’s a matter of us being one-on-one and having more time."

Two teachers at the school, Nick Crowe and Cynthia Whiting, spearheaded the project after recognizing a need for different motivational tools for struggling students.

"We picked the group of guys that we knew could be successful, and we knew had potential, but for whatever reason they had failed a course — or two or three or four — last semester," Crowe said.

Brandon Murphy said he was failing three of four courses at one point during first semester, and his highest mark at the end of first term was around 60 per cent. After enrolling in the course, he has achieved 90 per cent and above in all but one subject.

"That’s a big step for me . . . this is all because of this class," Brandon said.

At the beginning of the course, the class completed a test that showed they prefer hands-on activities when learning. Students receive credit for their applied activities.The main project is the boat, but the class also included cooking lessons, guest speakers talking about drugs and alcohol, journal writing and assignments that help students understand how they learn.

The goal is to help students improve their academic standing and engage with their school, Crowe said. The class’s reward will be to take the boat out on First Lake and to go on a camping trip in June.

The boat project was made possible through a $5,000 grant from the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, but that grant will not be an annual commitment. The class plans to sell the boat so it can buy more supplies for next year’s Grade 10 students.