Programs

Mission Statement
To provide an exciting hands on multi-disciplinary learning experience for students of all ages.

Program Overview
We use unmanned mini-sailboats equipped with GPS tracking devices to study ocean and wind patterns and much more. These five foot mini-boats need no outside assistance and will sail directly downwind month after month. As these boats travel the oceans of the world to faraway lands students will have the opportunity to learn and improve their skills in the following:

• Map reading
• Geography
• Earth science
• Oceanography
• Naval architecture
• Boat building
• International relations
• Meteorology

What Makes This Program Unique?
It’s a school wide project from grade school through high school including schools of technology. Vocational students produce the boats from naval architect drawings and foreign language students will be talking to students abroad to arrange for their boat’s rescue or recovery. Grade school kids will learn as their boats follow the courses of the early explorers to the new world. This program includes school assemblies and Maine Maritime Academy Day where students deliver their boats to the Captain, tour the academy and meet with admissions.

Program Includes

• Introductory school assembly
• Maine Maritime Day
• Launching from the Maine Maritime Academy training ship
• Photos of your launch and your boat sailing off to distant lands
• Communications from the training ship’s captain and officers
• Access to ships log
• Ongoing support, guidance, and assistance through out the voyage
• Assistance with retrieval

Flexibility and Community Boats
We want this project to be as exciting and meaningful for students as we can possibility make it. It’s my job as manager is to make each voyage as interesting as we can. We will work with you to customize a plan for you. If you don’t want to launch off the State of Maine training ship we might be able to launch your boat off a freighter leaving a port near you or even get it launched off a NOAA research vessel and have your boat participate in meaningful oceanography studies with NOAA or the fishing industry. You can also do a “community boat” and share a boat with another school or organization and reduce your costs significantly. Another way to reduce costs is to have your school or organization put one of our kit boats together. This makes a great vocational school project and really gets your students and the whole school to take “ownership” of this hands-on learning opportunity.

Costs
Complete boat with GPS ready to sail: $1500

This includes GPS installed, launching from the “State of Maine” training ship, and all
support services listed above for Maine schools. There is an additional monthly GPS
monitoring fee that varies according to how frequently you wish to monitor your boat.
You can receive two position reports daily for less than $20/month. If you want to
consider reducing costs be sure to ask about doing a kit boat or we’ll try to match you up
with another school – perhaps a school on another content or in the Azores!!!

About Educational Passages
Educational Passages is an informally organized group of individuals, organizations, institutions, and businesses with knowledge and expertise about the sea. We are all volunteers and include captains, pilots, professional boat builders, sail makers, teachers, oceanographic professors, solo-sailors, ship’s navigator, two universities and a maritime academy. We are an enthusiastic group having fun with the common goal of providing the best and most exciting hands on learning adventures we can for students.

View our Brochure
Order Boat