The annual school boat race made a splash once again this year, drawing crowds of students eager for a day filled with teamwork, laughter, and the thrill of competition on the water as Morgan sent their students from ECE physics to compete in the annual field trip.

In ECE Physics, taught by Mrs. Walston, the students worked on building the most effective boat, squeezing it in two weeks for the competition. The required materials for the boat were only cardboard and duct tape.

The race is through UConn, an early college experience. It was started by UConn to bring together everybody who’s focused in ECE science classes. Mrs. Walston, who teaches ECE physics shares, “the boat race is meant to be a team building activity at the beginning of the year for kids who are enrolled in ECE physics.”

Katrina Harris, a junior who attended the boat race shared, “we spent every class working on it for it to be the best; Mrs. Walston even had to buy more duct tape.”

The group spent every class leading up to the field trip working on the boat, splitting the jobs up evenly. There were different groups, so the students could evenly work on it effectively. The jobs consisted of engineers, designers, social media crew, the flag, and more.

“It’s hard to have so many people collaborate and come up with high quality ideas, especially doing it between two different classes, so not everybody is always together and so sometimes the classes disagree with one another.” Walston says.

On September nineteenth, around three weeks into school, the ECE physics students attended the competitive race competing with their boats against other schools at the UConn Avery Point Campus. Harris, who was the team’s racer, stepped into the ocean and climbed into the sturdy boat, ready to paddle as quickly as possible.

A powerful push was needed from Declan Shortt, a classmate who worked on the boat as well. Harris launched into the water, paddling, and was encouraged by her classmates cheering her on. For a moment, the Morgan boat surged ahead. With water splashing at the boat, it began to slow down while other teams started catching up, passing one by one. Still, the students kept cheering.

Steering was one of Harris’s difficulties, she remembered, as the water was flowing from every angle. She tried her best using all the strength she had. Morgan got second in the heat and fifth in the finals. Although Morgan fell short, Shortt felt the boat was built to last, “I noticed the boats that people were throwing out were falling apart and soaking wet, but ours, it could have kept going, we could have taken that across the whole ocean if we wanted to.”

Though Morgan didn’t take home gold, special moments were captured and Morgan won best designed boat. Harris added, “my favorite moment throughout the day was when we got to the final and everyone was excited and hyped about the powerful boat we created.”