New Buffalo physics students float down Galien River in handcrafted kayaks

It was Ben Lijewski who conceived the idea to have students in his physics class build kayaks.

“I have some crazy ideas sometimes…Mr. Eberly helps me with these ideas,” he said, adding that it was really “everybody’s idea.”

Students, along with New Buffalo High School science teacher Richard Eberly, tested their finished product when they took a brief journey down the river in their kayaks at the Galien River kayak launch along Red Arrow Highway in New Buffalo Township Saturday, June 12.

To build the kayaks, Lijewski said that they first used white oak for all the framing and marine grade plywood for the outside skin. Brass screws and twopart epoxy were used to hold everything together.

“Don’t have any holes in your boat” was a standout lesson that Lijewksi learned from the project.

Lijewski also made a miniature canoe out of concrete.

“I made a mold for the concrete and placed the concrete over it to make the canoe,” he said.

Lijewski, said that Michigan Tech, which is where he’s heading in the fall, kicks off the school year by having the students make concrete canoes.

“This entire class has been a lot of fun because Eberly’s been able to incorporate many different units into the kayaks and he made class really enjoyable and fun,” he added.

Eberly said when he told the students to pick the curriculum, they chose electricity and magnetism with circuits, rotational motion, and fluid dynamics.

Eberly said they did each of those units, picking the units up from Arizona State University and North Carolina State University.

“We went through the physics curriculum and then for the lab portion of it, I always have them do an activity,” Eberly said.

Students originally wanted to build race boats (what Eberly used to build when he was young) but decided on kayaks instead.

Students also built a Bluetooth Wi-Fi stereo system in the classroom, which went into a kayak.

According to Bodee Davis, the students began building them at the start of the third trimester.

Davis said fluid dynamics is, in a nutshell, the “interactions of gases and liquids.”

“We’re going to build these to help give a physical demonstration of some of those properties that we’re trying to learn,” Davis said of their thought process to build the kayaks.

Davis added that they used the CanYak blueprint series from Glen-L Boats to build them.

The previous night, Brenden Tanksley had been up until 12:30 working on his kayak. Students came in several weekends and, even after graduating June 5, came into the school the following week every day to try and finish them.

“We put a decent amount of work into them,” Davis, who is headed to the University of Michigan in the fall, said.

Davis said most of the students in the class have been on the high school’s robotics team.

“We’re all fairly hands on and kind of like doing stuff like this – we’re very fortunate that Mr. Eberly gave us the opportunity to do this,” he said.

Eberly attributed the class’ success to the students themselves.

“It was an amazing class – the kids that came in, all of them were getting STEM certified through the state of Michigan and all of them wanted to become engineers…It was a once in a decade dream class,” Eberly said.

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA

SCHOLASTICS

New Buffalo school board approves hiring of new middle school science teacher and coaches, 2021-2022 handbooks

Members of the New Buffalo Area Schools Board of Education approved some new hires, including the hiring of Nathaniel Orlowski for middle school science teacher, at their Monday, June 14, meeting.

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Leslie said that New Buffalo High School Principal Wayne Butler and his team did a second interview with Orlowski the Friday and that a first round of interviews had been done Thursday.

“We kind of wanted to get through this rather quickly,” he said, adding that Orlowski was “kind of a hot item and we wanted to get him locked in here at New Buffalo.”

Orlowski graduated from the University of Buffalo in upstate New York. He has experience teaching at the middle school level as well as AP Biology.

Leslie added that on his resume, there’s a QR code that took him to a clip of him presenting one of his lessons.

“He did a great job, he’s a very bright young man, I think he really hits a variety of levels - there’s a broad spectrum of abilities in that class that he showed from that video clip,” he said.

The hiring of David Kelly as girls’ varsity basketball coach was approved. Leslie said that Kelly coached junior varsity girls’ basketball at Lakeshore for years and coached junior varsity girls’ basketball for New Buffalo this past school year so he’s “looking forward to see what he can do for our program.”

The hiring of Bruce Mollineaux as varsity girls’ volleyball coach was approved. Leslie said he’s “heard nothing but great things” with how he’s done with the Michigan Lutheran girls’ program.

Board members approved hazard pay in the amount of $600, payable to all active employees, for the 20202021 school year.

Board members approved the following handbooks for the 20212022 school year: Athletic Handbook, Elementary Student Handbook, Middle School Student Handbook, and High School Student Handbook. Trustee Lisa Werner said the curriculum policy committee had reviewed the handbooks.

Board members approved granting tenure status to the following teachers: Curtis Brewster, Sara Mead and Natalie Walter.

Leslie said that they’re all “three great teachers” and that it’s been “a lot of fun” for him to see them grow, as they all arrived at the school district when he did five years ago.

“They’re just key components to the school district,” he said.

Board members approved Knoll Bros Oil Co. as the supplier of fuel products for 2021-2022.

Leslie commended Butler and his team for doing a great job with the high school graduation ceremony, which was held in the multiplex field June 5.

Despite it being somewhat “bizarre,” Leslie said it’s been a “great school year.”

“Hopefully, everyone has the chance to recharge their batteries and we’ll see what the 2021-2022 school year looks like,” he said.

Due to the Berrien County Board of Commissioners’ State of Emergency ending at the end of the month, board president Chuck Heit said that the school board’s June 28 meeting will be its last virtual meeting and they will resume in-person ones in the middle/ high school cafeteria. He commented on the large amount of participation from the public at the virtual meetings and said he might like to discuss if there was a way to broadcast the meetings “as we move forward with the first in-person meeting in July.”

After moving into closed session, board members approved authorizing Leslie to make an offer of not more than $250,000 for a property located on Lubke Road in New Buffalo Township.

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA

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Parade a homecoming for driver of Budweiser Clydesdales

The La Porte Fourth of July parade will be a homecoming for a driver of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales.

Alec Smith, 23, said destiny must have been at work because the brewing industry giant, long billed as the “King of Beers” chose him out of 400 applicants when a job opening developed.

He’s eager not only to drive the team of horses pulling a 1903 beer wagon in the downtown parade he used to attend as a child.

Smith said he can’t wait for people back home to see what he does for a living.

“I am beyond ecstatic, honestly,” he said.

Smith will spend quality here because the Clydesdales skyrocketing to fame in TV commercials during the ’70s will also be at the annual Red, Wine and Brew July 2 and the La Porte County Fair July 10.

He played a critical role in getting the Clydesdales here because of his ties at Bethany Lutheran Church and Garwood Orchards, where he attended and worked as a youth.

Pastor Dennis Meyer and church member Carrie Garwood are lead organizers of the popular Red, Wine and Brew.

They were looking to spice up the annual beer and wine tasting event featuring a concert this year by country music superstars Montgomery Gentry and John Michael Montgomery.

After they reached out to him, Smith began the process of having the Clydesdales dispatched to LaPorte.

“They really are the superstars of horses,” Garwood said.

Ironically, perhaps, Smith has never owned a horse.

In third grade, he signed up for a program in 4-H that gives youth a chance to ride and take care of horses belonging

BY STAN MADDUX to other people and show the horses at the fair. A few years later, Smith was doing the same thing with another owner’s Clydesdales. “I took care of them like they were my own,” he said. He was in college

majoring in nursing and still working with horses when the earth began shaking on what appears to be his true calling in life.

Smith said he started taking care of the horses of a neighbor, Shelby Zarobinski, when she was hired as a Budweiser Clydesdale driver in Colorado.

She helped him make some connections at Budweiser that might have helped when he applied for an opening in New Hampshire.

“That’s how I got the job,” he said.

Smith said he’s practically been to every state east of the Mississippi River and into Canada in his travels with the Budweiser crew to show the horses the past three years.

His other duties include driving one of three semi-trucks used to transport the horses and other supplies to each location.

“We travel rain, shine, snow, hot. It doesn’t matter. Wherever you want us, we’ll be there,” he said.

Smith said he can’t imagine doing anything else right now.

He enjoys seeing the country and the different people he gets to meet including some wanting his autograph.

The joy he sees when the horses come for visit is what he likes most about the job.

“A lot of smiles we get to put on people’s faces is priceless. We have 40-year-old men who are jumping up and down and clapping their hands. They’re so excited to see us,” he said.