BATH

E quipped with goggles and tools, Woolwich students bustled past each other during an open house event as they continued to work on two unfinished wooden skiffs at Maine Maritime Museum’s boat shop.

On Wednesday, parents, volunteers and community members stopped by to observe — and even lend a hand as students worked.

Brenda Reed looked on as her granddaughter Tiffany, an eighth grader, crouched by the side of one of the boats to do some drilling.

“It’s teaching them a lot of different life skills, and I’m amazed that at a very young age they’re using all these tools,” Reed said. “This is something we never had.”

Every year, the Discovery Boatbuilding program hosts seventh- and eighth-grade students from Woolwich Central School and South Bristol School who learn traditional boatbuilding skills once a week throughout the school year at the museum’s boat shop.

In the first semester, students learn basic woodworking skills by working on smaller projects, like stools and toolboxes. By January, they’re ready to put their skills to the test by building 12-foot-long, flat-bottomed skiffs as a team.

“It never ceases to amaze me how well the kids and volunteers work together. They basically teach each other how to complete projects and how to wrap their minds around problems,” said Kurt Spiridakis, program educator and boat shop manager.

Once their boats are complete, students will launch them out on the Nequasset River in June. The finished skiffs will go on sale for about $1,200 each, with the funds returning to the program. Last year’s boats sold even before the launch, Spiridakis said.

“This is taking math, science and physics and putting it to a real-life purpose, and so often in school there’s not an opportunity to do that,” said Amy Lent, executive director of Maine Maritime Museum. “Kurt does not give them the answers. He shows them how to figure it out and lets them figure it out.”

Over the summer, the program will be reviewed and tweaked in areas that need to “drive home a little bit more with the kids,” said Spiridakis, though the overall curriculum has stayed the same and is “something that we’ve been using for 20 years.”

“The kids are building boats, but what they’re learning is way more than how to build boats. These kids are learning that, in fact, they can do pretty much anything,” Lent said. “They know what they’re doing and nobody’s standing there telling them what to do right now. And nobody can take that away from them. They’re going to have that for the rest of their life.”

Woolwich students also spoke about the value of having a hands-on learning experience.

“It’s fun — we get to try new things, and we get to be really independent,” said student Grace Bingham.

Seventh grader Avery Smith also shared his thoughts on the program during the open house presentation.

“We worked on planks, transoms and stems for about five weeks, and now we’re working on the outer stem and the excess caulking removal,” he said. “This program has been very fun and important. I’ve learned so much from it, and it has been a very unique experience watching the boat progress from a few planks and clueless kids to what it is today.”

Woolwich selectmen and representatives of PC Construction, a Portland-based company which donated $10,000 to the program last year, were also present to show their support for the students.

dkim@timesrecord.com

The program

• EVERY YEAR, the Discovery Boatbuilding program hosts seventh and eighth-grade students from Woolwich Central School and South Bristol School who learn traditional boatbuilding skills once a week throughout the school year at the Maine Maritime Museum’s boat shop.