Forward Facing, Forward Thinking: Meet the Hampshire Regional Miniboat Crew

A chat with the Hampshire Regional Miniboat Crew (from Westhampton, MA), who share with us the fun they had while preparing their miniboat throughout the entire school year. Experience the camaraderie and dedication that transformed a large, enthusiastic group into a tightly-knit team, who is now planning for launch next year.

Join us as the crew talks about things like what it will be like to continue the project over the summer, what's involved in building a miniboat, the best angle to install the on deck camera, and what did they name their miniboat.

Listen in as our young scientists discuss their forward-facing work and vision.

To access the special VIDEO version of this podcast, visit https://youtu.be/x1V5eSy2U6I.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:06

Welcome to the Educational Passages podcast. Educational Passages is a nonprofit organization that seeks to connect people around the world to the ocean and each other through unique global experiences. I'm your host, Cassie Stymist.

Speaker 2 0:46

I'm your host and we're seventh grade science teachers here at Hampshire Regional Middle and High School and this year we took on this amazing project with educational passages with our mini boat. We have a super cool and amazingly supportive administration that when we took this idea to them, they said yes, they're excited to do anything that will really promote student learning and give our kids a connection to real science and the world around us, and we've got a bunch of great kids who show up every Wednesday after school. We've been able to incorporate the mini boat project into our seventh grade science curriculum. We've done a lot of really cool projects over the course of the last year. We're totally looking forward to launching this thing in the fall.

Speaker 1 1:37

That's awesome. Let's go around and just kind of say hi to some of the crew members. Do you want to say your name and if you've been on a team or like what your role has been for the project?

Speaker 3 1:47

Yeah, I'm Damian and I help turn the brains of the boat on and get it working and figure out what everything does. What do you mean by the brains, the computer, the sensor pack that controls the air temperature sensor and water temperature sensor and the satellite and the camera um, I'm james.

Speaker 4 2:12

Um, I've helped damien do the thing um me. Me, damien and connor have been working together on that, so yeah I'm connor.

Speaker 3 2:19

I'm also on tech crew with these two um um, I'm noah.

Speaker 5 2:25

Um, I have been helping um, me and willow and, I think, one other person, elena. Um, we've been working on creating um the website, where um it talks about hampshire and hampshire science and the menu.

Speaker 3 2:43

Basically, yeah, hello, I was also a webmaster with Noah and we've been working on the website and Noah's been trying to get another podcast. I'm Savannah. I've just been doing random stuff. Helping the boat I painted the American flag on it. I've also been doing random stuff.

Speaker 5 3:14

I helped put hello in a bunch of different languages. A lot of times in the boat I'm Sammy, I did the whole keel.

Speaker 3 3:20

I'm Mackenzie. I've also been doing random stuff Been here in and out and I did the keel.

Speaker 6 3:27

And off camera. We have some people. If they want to share out, they can. All right, they are totally being humble about this. They are literally the lifeblood of this entire project. When I can't find something, you can be sure Elizabeth or Sammy are telling me exactly where it is. You know, all of you have done things that we could not possibly have done on our own at all.

Speaker 6 3:54

Like this is. This is like a team. Right here, I feel like they there's no, I mean, there's nothing they couldn't accomplish. Each one of them brings such amazing skills to this and I'm not like even, like you know, sense of of pride, a positive attitude, sense of humor and and these kids really have been this'll be part of that core crew that was that will come with us to to launch it wherever, wherever we, we, we decide we're going to launch it from. But yeah, they've done more than they're they're saying.

Speaker 1 4:24

How long have you guys been working on the project and what's been your school year like?

Speaker 5 4:30

We've been working on the project probably since October.

Speaker 6 4:36

Yeah, but really just the time. It was literally like one hour a week.

Speaker 6 4:43

We just don't have the time built into our school. I know that some schools that might have smaller classes or smaller kids that are in one class all day might have a chance to do it over the course. We could have done it in a week, realistically. Then kids have commitments to work or to sports. There was always some members here that were willing to help out. There's a couple of days, I think, I went away or we had to cancel, but but yeah, it was. It's kind of a slow burn, but that's. That was a time we had.

Speaker 1 5:19

We've worked on it all year, so now it's like part of the family, right? I mean that much time together with your little boat.

Speaker 5 5:32

Without a doubt, me and Willow and I think I don't think anybody else, we've been um, we decorated a little bit, um, we're still working on decorating the inside of the boat, which is um, some of um, me and Willow and a lot of our other friends, favorite, favorite books, so it's kind of like, I guess, a bookshelf, and I drew Massachusetts, the state of Massachusetts, on the front and we put a star where we are.

Speaker 2 6:04

I think you can tell we've kind of been meandering through the process and giving the kids some autonomy to to do what they want, because really it it's. It's a project that they're driving and you know, ultimately hopefully we'll learn from, but also them and you know, maybe it will inspire them to potentially go into something related to this as a career in the future.

Speaker 1 6:28

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 6:30

We also put a little canister of letters that students wrote in the vault for other people that find it. Maybe it walks us on shore. Take that, oh, there's two of them.

Speaker 1 6:42

Watch out Our little message is in a bottle, very nice.

Speaker 2 6:49

So old school message in a bottle with, uh, you know, 2.0, with the sensor pack and everything and all your and and I think the goal is to support videos, um, to have like a digital message in the bottle too, and along with the web page that they're making so that there's this kind of analog old school and like a new message in the bottle too, and along with the webpage that they're making so that there's this kind of analog old school and like a new school digital connection that we can make.

Speaker 1 7:10

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, you guys really took your time with that. I love that. You know every mini boat comes as a blank slate. How'd you guys come up with a name? Has that been taken all year?

Speaker 6 7:23

It's been a long process. No, we had, we had voted. No, yeah, we had all this.

Speaker 2 7:31

As many people as we could that wanted to participate submitted names and we did a sale design oh yeah contest and you know I mean we are the hampshire raiders, so that definitely had a little bit of an influence. And someone around here is a bit of a Star Wars nerd and you know the Millennium Falcon reference was not something that wasn't intentional.

Speaker 1 7:57

Well, so, for the listeners, what is the name that you have chosen for your mini-book?

Speaker 2 8:01

Where is it? It's printed somewhere.

Speaker 4 8:04

I wrote the name. I can hold it Millennium Raider. Wait, let me hold it closer name that you have chosen for your mini book.

Speaker 6 8:07

Where is it?

Speaker 1 8:08

it's printed somewhere and you guys announced it like the week before may 4th, so that was a fun little instagram post. May the 4th be with you. Thanks for that.

Speaker 2 8:20

Then we have the sail design. You guys want to bring that back for a second. I know right.

Speaker 3 8:27

That is beautiful.

Speaker 2 8:28

So I mean, clearly we're the Raiders, so there had to be a pirate ship on there. We've got Hampshire Regional but like one of the things that is just captures a picture of our school is, every morning when you drop into Hampshire Regional we just have the most phenomenal sunrises that come up over the tree line and it is like one of those defining things about this school. So being able to kind of capture a sunrise here is like just such a I don't know. I think it's a nice connection.

Speaker 6 9:01

I love it in its simplicity. It was a combination of one of the students drew an awesome landscape picture and then, through a few modifications and some phenomenal artwork and and hard work, uh, it became this and arlen, I think no no, arlen went down so we're very lucky. It's always nice to have those kids that know how to draw really well. It's kind of like one of those skills that, but but it was fun.

Speaker 2 9:30

We used we used the template to just give every kid an opportunity to design their own sale and then, rather than just voting on one sale design, we decided to go with a mishmash of like all the parts we liked, love it. That's the end result.

Speaker 1 9:49

That's fantastic. Do you think we can get a sunrise picture from your mini boat with your fancy sensor pack there I really hope that'd be cool.

Speaker 2 9:59

If you said it, to take the picture at the right time.

Speaker 6 10:03

Exactly the right time. We'll do the math. Hopefully it'll be at the end.

Speaker 1 10:11

What have your favorite parts been?

Speaker 4 10:16

What have you guys been learning?

Speaker 3 10:18

I guess how to put a boat together, yes, and all the parts that go into making a boat be able to stand up to the water and how durable it needs to be. I know how much actual work is put into it, yeah, and how it's actually going to be so beat up in the ocean.

Speaker 4 10:36

Yeah.

Speaker 3 10:36

Hopefully it stays together. Hopefully, if anything, we are.

Speaker 6 10:40

Are we subconsciously avoiding the inevitable?

Speaker 6 10:43

because, it's it's, it is like you said part of our family, but like I think I think the idea of like the adventure that it's going to have like we just had a speaker, um, with our uh, zoomed in yesterday who's working on the, some stuff with nasa, and like I've always loved the idea of like robotics and rovers and these kind of vehicles and having one that can go out to the ocean and bring back data I just think that is the most exciting part. It will be the most bittersweet part launching it and then and then, of course, having a later launch date so that these kids, you know, probably get to miss a class next year, but introducing it to our seventh graders next year as they'll be the ones that'll be in our classrooms, kind of being able to track it but knowing that this is like the crew that made it happen and I think it's a good way of bridging the two grades and yeah, so it worked out well, even though it was slow going, it worked out, not saying we planned it that way.

Speaker 3 11:42

But you know to know that this is going to go out into the world, that we might not even know if it'll come back.

Speaker 2 11:48

Yeah, and I think it's super cool both from, like the nerdy science teacher perspective, but I also think, for the kids, like the whole citizen science based thing where like this actually becomes data that scientists can use.

Speaker 6 12:07

And it becomes like important information that, like these guys have been able to manage, they're contributing to global scientific data collection and it's legit, like it's real.

Speaker 1 12:15

You guys talked a lot about that, like what types of data you're going to be collecting. That's like really most, um you know, valued with ocean scientists, at least recently we haven't really put on ocean temperatures we've got like rising open temperatures, which are yeah and especially in the atlantic.

Speaker 1 12:33

We're seeing this, uh, the shift of the amok and the circulation patterns, and you know we've only have like a couple dozen mini boat tracks with the sensor data. So I think it's really cool that you guys get to be another data set. We actually just launched another one. Do you guys know where Dudley Middle School is? It's a Massachusetts school, I know. Oh, really.

Speaker 2 12:53

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 13:04

They launched their boat a week ago off the shelf break south from the RV Endeavor. It was a great spot right near the Gulf Stream. Right, we're going to send it on its way. Where do you think it went?

Speaker 3 13:09

Um, I have a Voltron right.

Speaker 1 13:14

It went north. It ended up in Falmouth, massachusetts, last night, but it was a week voyage, unexpected, but we it had the same sensors that yours is going to have, right air temperature, water temperature, but also had a camera and we were taking a lot of pictures as it approached and we even got like the horizon on it. So it's really exciting that you guys can collect this kind of information and we can send it to researchers, because we all thought the boat was going to go in the Gulf Stream and it didn't. So something happened with the water moving right that brought that boat kind of not where we thought it would. So, and that's all. What's helpful for scientists is to help improve those models and forecasts.

Speaker 2 14:01

So some of our kids, and it's always always kind of fun to get a second chance at things.

Speaker 1 14:06

Yeah, so what are the next steps for the Millennium Raider?

Speaker 5 14:12

Well, we have to paint the today.

Speaker 6 14:15

No, not paint. They said to do that before we launch it next year.

Speaker 3 14:18

Oh, we got to test it Today positioning the camera, like where the camera?

Speaker 6 14:22

what view they want to have with the camera?

Speaker 2 14:26

Do you have any potentials, Like do you have suggestions for what you think is best for the camera view?

Speaker 1 14:32

I can send you a couple examples. Have suggestions for what you think is best for the camera view? I can send you a couple examples. We've seen one that was pointed towards the stern, which was interesting because it ended up going through a hurricane, so we had this horizon view of it, pretty much on its side. But that way you don't get to see if the sail comes off or something happens to the sail. So we've seen most of them pointed forward. But yeah, I can send you some links so you can check out some examples. And yeah, you can check it out.

Speaker 6 15:02

Or backwards would be weird. Yeah, I like forward Forward, looking Forward thinking. Maybe if we had two cameras we could do one forward, one backward.

Speaker 1 15:11

And one underneath.

Speaker 6 15:13

On the bottom. I think we should have two. I think that'll be the bottom. I have a sacrificial gopro we can use, so we'll have our. We'll have our club meet next year once we get into before the launch day I think yeah early because I know the launch window's first week in October.

Speaker 2 15:32

Correct.

Speaker 1 15:34

Yeah, hopefully that will work out Are you guys going to be, able to wait all summer.

Speaker 6 15:40

No, no, it'll give them something to look forward to. Then we can get funds for a bus and make everything. Otherwise we would have been rushing it so badly right now. Yeah.

Speaker 2 15:50

And I think it's also nice because I think it will be something really fun to kick off next year rather than to try and squeeze in this year.

Speaker 3 15:59

I agree and to show the incoming seventh graders what or hamster potential, yeah, and what we're doing with this and how they can help.

Speaker 1 16:06

Yes that's awesome. You guys are definitely the mini boat ambassadors now, and there'll be some other launches that you can also track. That's cool.

Speaker 3 16:14

Yes.

Speaker 5 16:15

Definitely. I know that at the beginning, when there was probably the whole I don't know, it was like the very beginning of the boat club and everyone kind of everyone who knew about it, came in and we had this huge group and when sports started, um, it kind of started narrowing down.

Speaker 5 16:41

so the people actually wanted to stay and see it yeah and I mean like um, we've kind of kind of like what you were saying earlier. It's kind of like um, somewhat family now like um, and it's kind of um, I guess we've all bonded a little bit more over the boat and um kind of like um, anything that was um that came up during um the club, like um we, and it was pretty funny at the end um at the beginning because we were joking around a lot, and now things get serious.

Speaker 4 17:18

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 17:20

Now it's time for serious science.

Speaker 4 17:22

Yeah, yeah, I mean, like I know some students like in this case actually me, today is my first day back Like we've had reasons that like we had to miss a bunch of them. Today's my first day back like we've had reasons that like we had to miss a bunch of them. But, um, now, like because like some students who did sports, like I guess like at first, like in the beginning of the year, like everybody wanted to do it, I guess because they thought it was so cool, but I, like Noah was saying, now it's kind of like smaller, because like people had sports and then they, after sports, they stopped because they just I don't know.

Speaker 3 17:54

So it's now like narrowed down to the people who actually want to see it through. Yeah, and really, really help.

Speaker 1 18:00

You guys are committed, you'll make great scientists or whatever marine professionals that you'll become Awesome. Well, congratulations for your work so far. You guys are an awesome crew for everyone else to look up to, so I'm excited to share out this podcast. Congratulations for your work so far. You guys are an awesome crew for everyone else to look up to, so I'm excited to share out this podcast and share your work. So have a great summer and let's regroup in the fall and follow the rest of the adventures then. Thank you.

Speaker 3 18:26

Cassie.

Speaker 1 18:28

Thanks everyone. You have been listening to the Educational Passages podcast. Educational Passages is a nonprofit organization. Please consider making a donation to help us continue our work bringing people together to learn more about the ocean. To donate head over to educationalpassagesorg support. If you're enjoying this program, please consider subscribing to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, spotify, google Podcasts or from wherever you download your podcasts. Thanks for listening.

Speaker 3 19:02

Thank you.