Compass Project Youth Boat Building Programs

Helping students to become invested in learning and thriving in school, particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects, is critical for their future economic success. The Compass Project STEM through Boat Building Program is a collaborative and innovative partnership with high schools that provides math, engineering and science programs for youth at risk of school failure. The program gives hard-to-reach students the opportunity to re-engage with school through hands-on, project-based learning in Math, Science and Engineering in a way that makes the academic subjects relevant to their lives.

2011-2012 programs include:

• Year long STEM through Boatbuilding Programs with the following schools South Portland High School's One Classroom Project, Gorham High School's Bridges program, Falmouth High School's Pathways program, Spurwink Cummings School.
• Semester long programs include STEM through Boatbuilding with Youth Building Alternatives students, a Girls Group, English Language Learner (ELL) students from King Middle School.
• Casco Bay High School's annual winter weeklong intensive program will be building oars and helping maintain Compass Project's fleet of rowing skiffs and dories.
• A collaboration with East End Elementary School for every 5th grader in the school to work together in groups to build a boat.

NEW Pilot Programs:

• SeaPerch - students from Lyman Moore Middle School will do a pilot program building SeaPerch ROVs-small remote controlled submarines.
• After school Rowing program with Casco Bay High School students.

Program Description: High school students in the STEM program come to the Compass Project shop in the East Bayside section of Portland for either 1 or 2 sessions per week for a yearlong or semester program. They follow a curriculum developed by Compass Project staff and school teachers that addresses a particular science, math or engineering topic pertinent to the boat building task for that session. Students have a hands-on experience of working and understanding these concepts through their practical application to building a boat. A website/blog is developed to follow the process. Photos of students, the work in progress and student and teacher comments are posted.

In addition we continue to work elementary and middle schools to provide boat building programs that focus on social skills and leadership. Students in our award-winning programs attend semester and year-long boat building classes where they learn to measure, cut, fasten, and paint a traditional twelve-foot wooden skiff or build a larger dory. Working in teams, students develop communication skills, a facility with tools and the ability to problem-solve. Students' math skills improve as they use arithmetic and fractions while measuring and marking lines. Boat builders and adult volunteers provide positive role models, and students develop confidence in their skills and abilities. They learn to focus and persevere over the long period of time it takes to build a boat, and they learn how to fix mistakes that they thought were irreparable. Students learn that a complex project becomes manageable, because, as one Casco Bay High student observed, "Everything complicated can be broken down into many simple tasks."

Our School Partners:
Since 2002, we have provided programs to at-risk youth from the majority of Portland's public K-12 schools, including: East End Community School, the Reiche School; Lincoln, King and Lyman Moore Middle Schools; Portland, Deering and Casco Bay High Schools, and the Portland Schools Multi-Cultural Program. We also have provided programs for South Portland H. S., Gorham H.S., Westbrook Middle School, Morse High School in Bath, and Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham. We work with several programs at Spurwink – the Cummings school and the Casco Program. We have reached more than 1,600 youth through the public schools, residential treatment programs, and programs for adjudicated youth, working with 24 schools and youth agencies all together. Eighty-five percent of the students come from low-or moderate-income households.