When Tupper Tech student Zack Robinson suggested he and his fellow students build a boat for an English 12 project based on the novel Life of Pi, their teacher laughed.
“And then I challenged them,” said Jennifer Braun, the head of the school’s English department. “Yeah, hey, if you do this, it’s going to be the most epic project ever, and you’ll make Tupper history.”
Last Friday school history was made as students christened the SS Piscine, named for the novel’s protagonist Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, in False Creek. It culminated weeks of work starting in December that featured co-operation between the school’s academic and technical education departments.
Seventeen-year-old project manager Maricris Evangelista recited a boat christening text and seven of the 10 boys who helped build the vessel chanted, “To the sea, to the sailors before us, to the SS Piscine.”
“She’s doing it with Starbucks coffee because we’re not allowed to have alcohol, but how much more West Coast is it than Starbucks coffee?” said Tupper Tech teacher Russ Evans of the christening. “I was sobbing at the end of it. I’ve been at weddings that were less emotional than that.”
The SS Piscine seats five and students clambered in.
Robinson suggested building the boat as a joke. But the next day, Evans encouraged students to make it happen.
Robinson departed before building began to complete an electrician apprenticeship as part of the Tupper Tech program that teaches trades skills to Grade 12 students.
Evangelista swiftly hopped aboard to steer the project.
The students found plans for a lifeboat online, secured wood and fibreglass, stitched together panels, mixed and applied two-part epoxy foam and attached oar locks.
The boat-building team included five students in Braun’s English 12 class as well as seven other Tupper Tech teens.
“They were engaged because, well, they wanted it,” Evans said. “It wasn’t something that somebody had told them they had to, this was theirs.”
“Usually through high school my ideas haven’t been admired or acknowledged,” Robinson said. “This was one of the ideas that actually came to life… It feels good.”
Student Karolyn Lopez, who’s known around school for her artwork, painted a tiger on the back of the boat.
“It is the tiger from the Life of Pi, but it also represents us because we are Tupper Tigers,” Evangelista said, referring to the school’s boys basketball team that won the city championships.Braun, who’s taught with the Vancouver School Board since 2002, and in South Africa and the U.S. before that, asked students to design projects that share their knowledge of works of literature in engaging and creative ways.
But she never anticipated the lengths to which her students would go.
“I just want each and every one of us to be remembered,” said Evangelista, who plans to become an aircraft technician.
Evangelista, the only girl in Tupper Tech, had to learn how to gain the respect of the guys in her group and to assign tasks without annoying anyone.
“She was so dedicated,” said Danny Le.
“She kept us all on task,” agreed Kenny Huynh.
Evangelista wants other students to see they can accomplish whatever they want with a little support and a lot of teamwork.
Braun believes her students have made history with the project-based collaboration between the academic English class and tech ed.
“This is public education. It’s East Van. With a bit of creativity and goodwill and faith… it’s amazing what you can do,” she said.
But how does building a boat demonstrate a deep understanding of Yann Martel’s novel?
“It symbolizes faith because Pi relied on the boat to survive,” Evangelista said in Tupper’s foyer, where the SS Piscine now rests. “But it also can represent a sanctuary where Richard Parker and Pi learn how to understand each other, communicate with each other, learn how to survive with each other and respect each other for how many days at sea.”
“It’s been super fun and meaningful and something that a standardized test can’t test,” Braun said.
crossi@vancourier.com
twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi
