Outreach

i) Live, 2-way ship, to shore broadcasts to schools, colleges, and universities around the world (Germany, Indonesia, United States, and Wales).

In summary, we broadcast to nearly 1100 people around the world and this website was visited over 2500 times during the cruise.

During week 4 of the cruise, we talked to 43 college students and faculty in Germany, Mississippi, and Florida, 20 high school seniors in Wyoming, 61 middle school students in Indonesia, 16 fifth grade students in Texas and 138 kindergarten students in California. That brings our total to 955 people so far! We have three broadcast days left. During week 3 of the cruise, we talked to 12 college students and faculty in Florida, 160 middle school students in Indonesia, and 73 middle school and 42 elementary students in Wyoming. That brings our total to 675 people so far! We’ve been getting an excellent response from the school children, many of whom have never seen the interior of a ship before. This follows week 2 of the cruise, during which we talked to 23 college students and faculty in Florida and Wyoming, 87 middle school students in Wyoming and Minnesota, and 43 elementary students in Wyoming. During the first week, we talked to over 200 people. Some (23) were college students and faculty from the Prifysgol Caerdydd (Cardiff University) in Cymru (Wales), but most were in the US. The middle school students were in New York (50), in Wyoming (48), and in South Dakota (about 10). All 77 elementary students were in Wyoming. Slackjaw Sally continues writing a daily blog for students to follow.

ii) Launching the miniboat “Sacred Heart Star of the Sea”

The journey has started. We fired up the mini-boat’s GPS on the 7th of March and for a while it reported from the deck of the R/V Thomas G Thompson as we mapped the seafloor of the Indian Ocean. We finally launched the mini-boat on the 22nd of March and below you’ll find a video of the launch and pictures of the Sacred Heart Star of the Sea as she sailed off into the distance.

Sacred Heart School students build research vessel for launch in Indian Ocean

KINGSTON, MA. Students at Sacred Heart School (www.sacredheartkingston.com), a private, Catholic, co-educational school in Kingston for students in preschool through grade 12, are presently engaged in a unique and exciting program that is literally making waves!

Under the direction of Clair Lombardo, Chair of the Science Department, students constructed Sacred Heart’s first school-built mini-boat research vessel – “Sacred Heart Star of the Seas” – for launch in the Indian Ocean. The boat is equipped with a weighted keel, a sail, and a solar panel attached to a GPS.

A research team aboard the Thomas G Thompson, a US Navy Global class research vessel, comprised of scientists from the U.S., Germany and China will conduct research on the ocean floor and along slow-spreading ridges. The team will launch the vessel from the Marion Rise in the Indian Ocean in February/March. Sacred Heart’s mini-boat will be carried by the powerful Agulhas Current and eventually reach land in India, Australia, or perhaps beyond.

“Sacred Heart Star of the Seas” includes a “message in the bottle”, letters written by students at the Elementary School, as a means of sharing the story of its creation with whoever finds the boat once ashore.

The journey of the Scared Heart of the Sea can be followed here http://educationalpassages.org/boats/starofthesea/

Jim Farrell, PR First, 781-681-6616, jfarrell@prfirst.com

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