If you want to get the attention of a group of eighth grade math students, tell them they are going to build a life-size cardboard boat. To increase interest, follow up this statement by telling them that two to four of them will actually be rowing this boat across a small pond. Eighth grade math students at Oasis Charter Middle School in southwest Florida have completed this project for the past four years. What has now become a source of great student pride at the school began as a challenge by the eighth grade teachers to their students. The teachers sought to develop a capstone project, which brought together the key mathematical issues students should learn in their middle grades math classes (i.e., scale, volume, Pythagorean theorem). They also desired a project to engage students in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) disciplines to help young adolescents develop skills necessary to thrive in a 21st century workforce. As a result, the cardboard boat challenge was created and implemented. In this article, an overview of STEM education is shared, along with a discussion of the struggles and triumphs of the eighth grade students as they planned and built their cardboard boats.