A Norwegian student found a boat launched by New Hampshire middle-schoolers in 2020 which was 462 days and more than 8,300 miles later.
The following written content by RACHEL TREISMAN
The remains of a miniboat launched by New Hampshire middle schoolers have been discovered by a sixth-grade student in Norway, 462 days and more than 8,300 miles later.
It was an eventful journey for the 5.5-foot boat, which was built by two consecutive middle school science classes in partnership with the nonprofit organization Educational Passages and first set sail (uncrewed) from Massachusetts in October 2020. The boat’s GPS reported intermittently over the years until the end of January, when a family recovered it from an uninhabited Norwegian island thanks to a social media connection.
“Our miniboat made it to the local school in Norway! Their 6th grade class opened the hatch to find our package of materials all dry inside! Amazing, considering the condition it was in!” Rye Junior High School posted on Facebook over the weekend.
The science class project got delayed by COVID-19
Rye Junior High and the nonprofit Educational Passages — which says it aims to connect students around the world to the ocean and one another — started working together on the project in 2018, according to a release. The organization provided students with an assembly kit in 2020, though the construction and launch were complicated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Science teacher Sheila Adams said her students had built the boat and were just getting ready to decorate it when COVID-19 forced classes online. Undeterred, they figured out a way to finish the project remotely: Students each submitted pieces of artwork, which were then scanned, printed and assembled into a collage on the boat’s deck. It was ready to set sail by summer vacation.
“Over the summer, we worked together to try and find a deployer for the vessel that could take the boat out to sea beyond the Gulf of Maine, but found it challenging with all of the restrictions in place,” said Cassie Stymiest, the director of Educational Passages. “So we waited until fall and introduced the new 5th-grade class to the project virtually.”
In order to connect the new class to the boat they had not built, the project leaders solicited student input on which color to paint the bottom, what messages to fill it with and where the vessel might end up. Some students hoped it would drift to Europe, while others were more skeptical, as The Portsmouth Herald reported.
“Honestly, I thought it would sink,” Solstice Reed, then a sixth-grader, told the newspaper. Read more from NPR.
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