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.”