The French frigate Hermione will work with the international educational project Educational Passages by launching the mini-boat “Canarias” to cover the distance between the archipelago and the Americas.
Students from Lycee Francais of Gran Canaria, supervised by technical staff from the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), have prepared the boat that has been boarded on the frigate in order to be deployed and put into operation in the coming days.
Educational Passages is an international program, created and led by a multidisciplinary consortium of US institutions, where NOAA and several secondary schools are included. The program has already collaborations in other countries, among them Portugal, France, Canada, Norway, United Kingdom and Spain.
The initiative is based on secondary school students participate during the academic year through the technology matter in the construction of small sailboats of approximately 1.5 meters long and 20 kilos of weight from the same mold, assemble and seal its main parts and suit with a GPS transmitter, in order to be deployed in the ocean (mainly North Atlantic) and track them during their navigation. The basic construction materials are part of a kit, which is supplied equally to each school. The initiative not only allows the inclusion of students in the field of technology, also in crossed-matters like biology, oceanography, history and computer science, as well as languages by interacting with involved schools from other countries through ICTs with the main aim to exchange knowledge and experiences.
PLOCAN participates as driving body for the Canaries of this educational initiative. While last year were launched from Southern Gran Canaria two boats manufactured by US schools which served as a pilot experience and involving three schools from Gran Canaria, nowadays boats are already manufactured locally, so the whole process of assembly and completion can be carried out by secondary schools in the Canaries.
To track in real time these brave mini-sailboats:
https://sites.google.com/a/plocan.eu/botes-educativos/seguimiento-de-botes
http://educationalpassages.com/boat-tracking#
