Photo by Leila Siegel

Teacher Mike Richards explains to one of his Engineering Science classes the basics of building a sailboat.

Though many people may not be aware, Engineering Science is a class offered as a science elective. The class is a hands-on experience, as the students work (in groups of two and three) on a cumulative year-long project: designing a model of a sail boat from scratch.

They also end up building a 12-foot boat at the end of the year, which one of the students gets to keep.

The teacher, Mike Richards, specifically chose a boat as the project.

“I picked a sailboat because… I’m a sailing enthusiast. Also, this is a great sailing area because of the Chesapeake Bay,” said Richards.

He said that the class inspires many students to look into engineering as a career.

“Already I’ve had some students say, after taking this course, that they now want to be an engineer… the point of [the class] is for the student to experience what it’s like to be an engineer,” said Richards.

Junior Owen Brinker is taking the class because he, too, is interested in sailboat design. He also liked that the class is specialized.

“I got interested [in the class] because I like boats and I’m better at applied classes than general ones usually,” said Brinker.

He also said that the class has been somewhat challenging.

“I knew [the class] wouldn’t be super-easy, and so far it’s been just so... Interesting, but manageable,” said Brinker.

There is already a relatively large number of students enrolled in the class; there are 82 students total for all periods. However, Richards said he could see more students taking the class in the future.

“When the word gets out about what the class is about and especially when people find out that, at the end of the year, we’re going to be building an actual 12-foot boat… I think we’ll get more students signing up,” said Richards.