life lessons

July Monthly Meeting: Life Lessons from a Colorado High School … Guests Welcome!

Platte Canyon High School in rural Bailey, Colo., doesn’t have a wood shop program. The town is landlocked and doesn’t have a lake. But the school has a yacht club. Kip Otteson will join us to share the story of how he and four other teachers helped students create the Platte Canyon Yacht Club. In 2018 teachers at Platte Canyon were wondering what kind of project could teach students about STEM, teamwork, and perseverance. Then they heard about a 70-mile open water ocean race that takes place over 48 hours off the coast of Washington State. They challenged students to design and build a boat from scratch that could compete in the race. The students embraced the challenge and built a huge boat that could hold 18 people. They trained and competed in the 2019 race and again in June 2021. Kip will share the lessons learned in challenging students to embrace a big challenge and how they overcame them as a team.