Box Sleigh Race

Another of the Winter Activities classes is the Box Sleigh Race.  This one was more labor intensive for the third year students because the race course had to be built.  On Thursday afternoon, all of the students went out to work on the course after the three who were leading the activity chose the location, which was the edge of one of the university parking lots.  A big snow moving machine flattened out the bottom to help make it safer.

After working several hours with shovels and the help of a snow mobile machine, the course is ready.

Testing the slope - Yes, it's ready!

The third year leaders and Jones Sensei

It snowed overnight and off and on Friday morning, so the third year students were back at work on the course, while the three leading the activity worked indoors with the first year students.

After explaining what to do, the first year students working in pairs, take their boxes and go to work. The rule was that both students had to go down the hill in the box. The boxes used were our moving to Japan boxes.  Everything gets recycled here.

There were seven groups of two and it was fun to see how they worked together and implemented their ideas.  They had about an hour and 15 minutes to make and decorate their sleighs.

This group made runners under their box, but didn’t have a clear idea on what else to do.  They kept cutting away.

This group had a clear idea from the beginning and stuck to it.  They measured and cut and were quite precise.

This group kept changing what to do.  They taped, then cut the tape, then folded and taped some more.

These two wanted a comfortable sleigh, so they made two seats with back rests.

This sleigh was very decorative, but did they put enough time into the actual construction? We'll find out.

This group got off to a slow start and didn’t seem to know what to do.

These two didn’t do much cutting and kept the structural integrity of the box.

The students and sleighs went out to the course. It was snowing hard the entire time of the race.  Each pair had the opportunity to tell about their concept.  I couldn’t understand a thing – their explanations were in Japanese.

Each pair went down the course and the distance was marked with some red kool-aid looking stuff squirted on the snow.

After all seven went down, awards were given to the longest, the shortest, and the best looking sleighs.

The two precision guys didn't make it to the bottom and won the shortest award.

The two with the most decorative sleigh, also went the farthest, winning two awards!

Everyone, participants and observers, had a good time.