We have had a few families with kids interested in sharing our long journey with us this spring. There have been quite a few questions about exactly how people, especially kids and classrooms, can take part in our upcoming voyage.
We think this trip offers kids a unique chance to explore the world through the eyes of other kids who are actually living it, real time. We are not sharing the destinations because it adds to the excitement and also it helps kids learn geography as they keep checking a world atlas or even checking through our online chart. But I can assure you that we will be traveling to some VERY spectacular places many of which have great historical significance. As we pass through these places I will be writing blogs intended to teach (I was a teacher for 15 years after all!) We will also post YouTube videos as we go showing these places and our adventures.
The other interesting thing we will be doing is conducting some scientific research data for the University of Portsmouth in the UK. They have a program called Citizens Science for Seafarers. They use data collected by sailors around the world to better understand the Phytoplankton situation on Earth. Phytoplankton is at the very bottom of the food chain and is vital to the overall health of the oceans. We will be using a Secchi Disk to measure the depth of the phytoplankton every three days or so. What makes our voyage unique though is that the distance we will be sailing means we will be covering two thirds of all of the latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Another scientific study our kids will be doing as part of their school while underway is to log human trash, its position and by the end of the voyage we should be able to graph areas in the Northern Hemisphere that have more or less trash and the type of trash we find. They will also be doing the same thing with sea life, logging and identifying every animal or bird they see throughout the trip.
If kids on land want to be part of this they can email our kids with questions and even share what they are doing at home. Keep in mind, our family will be at sea for a total of 70 days! One passage alone is almost a month long! We will only have each other to look at and interact with. It will be great for us to be getting emails from folks who are following us real time on our Facebook page, You Tube and Blog just letting us know what is happening out there.
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| This little land bird joined us hundreds of miles offshore one year! |
Anyone who wants to take part in this can email us and be put on the list. Anyone can follow us but only the ones who get on the list can actually interact directly with us on the voyage because the cost of our data is so high we have to give out a few ways to reach us directly in real time with questions and comments.
If you are interested or if you have a classroom that might be interested in using this voyage as a tool for learning send us an email at,
The Countdown is on!
The Burtons
S/V Wandering Dolphin
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