Seaport Museum and Students Embark On Delaware River Workboat Program
By Paul Kurtz
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Rowboats will be joining the duck boats and kayaks on the Delaware River this summer.
In the boathouse at the Independence Seaport Museum, on Penn's Landing, Nick Pagon has been busy building a pair of replica 19th century workboats with help from local high school students.
"We're building two at a time," he told KYW Newsradio today, "so these two will get launched -- we hope -- in June. And then, next year, we'll start over again with another two or three boats."
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Come June, Pagon says, the students will get a chance to get out on the water and row as part of a broader educational program.
"We're trying to teach them not only how to build boats but water safety, and then how to row the boats, then ecological studies. We're trying to use boatbuilding as a way to reinforce the educational curriculum in a fun way, especially math and physics but also geography, history, and social studies and all kinds of things."