BOATBUILDING
learn the basics
of boatbuilding
Explore programs offered in the Philadelphia area for middle and high school students to get hands-on boat building experience!
CLICK ON THE PROGRAM NAME TO GO TO THEIR SITE!
UrbanPromise: BoatWorks
Urban BoatWorks teaches middle and high school youth how to build wooden canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards. Our young boatwrights are introduced to the basics of boatbuilding, such as stitch-and-glue and cedar strip construction, as well as maritime history, the geometry of boat design, physics of buoyancy and aerodynamics, and some history and ecology of Camden’s local waterways. As part of our school year boat shop internship, youth learn financial literacy.
We offer boat builds to any school, homeschooler, scouts, or other groups interested in building. Contact us at urbanboatworks@urbanpromiseusa.org to schedule a build or come for a tour of our historic and beautiful boatshop.
Glen Foerd: Waterborne
Glen Foerd partners with Philadelphia-area schools to offer middle and high school students opportunities to build boats in their schools. In the Waterborne program, instructors meet with students weekly to support them in building working, 12-foot-long wooden rowboats, which they launch and row on local rivers at the end of the program. Throughout the program, students will explore watershed science topics and emerge with deeper understanding of their impact on local waterways.