Young engineers building sled
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

BETHEL – Thursday afternoon was unlike any other day for 10 fourth-graders in Lori Davis’ class at Crescent Park School.

All 10 students and two first-grade helpers were sitting in a neat little row in a carpeted hallway at 3:30 p.m., an hour after classes ended.

Two long and heavy weathered barn-board planks stood on edge on either side of them, giving the appearance of a trough of children.

Flattened cardboard boxes, snow sleds, a pair of skis, three large cardboard tubes, pine boards and a box of wood screws were strewn around the trough.

Mentor Jonathan Goldberg had his hands full trying to keep the attention of excitable youngsters while measuring the width of the trough, then measuring the hall’s exit doorway.

“This isn’t going to work, because it won’t fit out the door. Does anyone have a heated garage we can work in?” he asked.

He was trying to determine how best to transfer the children’s sled design from paper to working materials.

“We’re trying to make a sled that everyone can ride on, and now we’re trying to match their designs and what we talked about at that meeting to the harsh reality of the real world,” Goldberg said.

Starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, about a dozen teams of SAD 44 students in grades three through five are expected to compete in the fourth annual Great Snowbox Derby at the Bethel Inn XC Ski and Snowshoe Center.

Using only recycled materials, ingenuity and more than their fair share of zany decorating and design methods, the youths, with help from a mentor, must construct a sliding machine.

Derby helper Kathy Thrall said the sled must be configured for steering, speed and accuracy to descend a winding track off the Bethel Inn golf course’s first tee.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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