In Philadelphia, home to Boathouse Row, Nicholas Pagon gives students a chance to build their own seaworthy craft.

In Philadelphia, home to Boathouse Row, Nicholas Pagon gives students a chance to build their own seaworthy craft.

- David Karas

An educator and sailor, Nicholas Pagon was struck by the scenario of middle-school students reading a novel about an ocean voyage in a sailboat.

That’s because even though the students were in Philadelphia – a city on the Eastern Seaboard that’s home to the famed Boathouse Row on the Schuylkill River – few had been in a small boat, and probably none had been out on the ocean.

Mr. Pagon was determined to find a way to introduce more forms of engaged and experiential learning into school curricula. So in 2014 he launched Philadelphia Waterborne, which offers middle- and high-schoolers the opportunity to participate in boat-building while exploring environmental issues, maritime history, and school subjects such as geometry.

“I wanted them to use their hands, and I use every opportunity to reinforce the concepts they’re learning in the classrooms,” says Pagon, who is also a woodworker. “And I wanted them to build something real.”

Philadelphia Waterborne partners with schools, which supply a workspace for boat-building, a teacher to work with Pagon, and an academic focus for each class. The program also teams up with cultural arts groups that provide access to rivers, storage space, and opportunities for community engagement.