{"id":533694,"date":"2022-11-13T19:03:04","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T00:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/?p=533694"},"modified":"2022-11-15T15:11:57","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T20:11:57","slug":"students-mini-boat-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/students-mini-boat-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Students’ Mini-Boat & Drifter Launched"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Lady Lance beginning her trans-Atlantic voyage. Credit: John Lund \u00a9 WHOI<\/p><\/div>\n

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Credit: John Lund \u00a9 WHOI<\/p><\/div>\n

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Credit: Laura Slicer \u00a9 WHOI<\/p><\/div>\n

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The drifter on its way. Credit: John Lund \u00a9 WHOI.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The drifter contains messages of hope about the ocean. Credit: John Lund \u00a9 WHOI.<\/p><\/div>\n

On Sunday November 13, 2022, the Pioneer 19 Team and crew of the R\/V Neil Armstrong switched gears from their Pioneer recovery operations to launch a mini-boat and a drifter.\u00a0 Both were constructed by\u00a0 high school students from Waterford, CT, with the help of fourth grade Waterford students, who decorated its sails and hull. The boat is part of the <\/span>Educational Passages<\/a> program run by Cassie Stymiest in which the Connecticut high school students participate. The drifter is part of the Student Drifters program developed by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and now administered by the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The boat, named Lady Lance<\/em>, contains art inside and messages focused on climate hope and ocean optimism.\u00a0The students will track the boat\u2019s progress across the Atlantic, as well as the drifter, with the help of James Manning, a retired NOAA employee. Students in Michael O\u2019Connor\u2019s \u00a0Early College Experience Marine Science Class at Waterford High School built the boat and will follow its progress for the remainder of the school year. The students will follow the progress of both, using\u00a0 GPS telemetry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted to be able to support the work of the Waterford students, \u201c said John Lund, Chief Scientist of the Pioneer Array recovery team aboard the R\/V Neil Armstrong<\/em>. \u201cTheir interest, curiosity, and enthusiasm for this project is contagious,\u00a0 and we all will be tracking Lady Lance as she moves through the Atlantic. We also hope that some students are so inspired by this work that they go on to be scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lady Lance<\/em> is the second of such trans-Atlantic launches.\u00a0 The first occurred in 2016\u00a0 when Lady Lance\u2019s <\/em>sister ship, Lancer, was launched from the R\/V Neil Armstrong<\/em>. <\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(A good explanation of the winds and currents Lady Lance<\/em> may encounter is provided at 8:30).\u00a0 The boat\u2019s journey will be influenced by the wind, while the drifter\u2019s journey will be dictated by the currents, allowing for comparisons of conditions in the ocean region.<\/p>\n

Lancer<\/em> ultimately landed in Galway, Ireland, where it was found by a young girl who was also a Sea Scout. People in Connecticut and Galway raised money to have it refurbished and it was re-launched by The Irish Marine Institute. From Ireland, the boat made its way to the United Kingdom where it landed in Plymouth, England. The boat was refurbished by the Ocean Conservation Trust at the National Aquarium in Plymouth and served as a focus for their STEMFEST<\/a>, which hosted more than 50 school groups from around the UK.\u00a0 STEMFEST students created\u00a0 projects that will be sent in an upcoming Lancer<\/em> launch at the end of November. An affiliated project, Project Ocean Climate Nexus (Project OCN<\/a>), is hosting a conference at the National Aquarium in March.\u00a0 Participants will see student research based on the data produced by the mini boats and drifters, students from the US and UK presenting projects.<\/p>\n

The Spanish Institute of Oceanography will launch Lancer <\/em>at the end of November, nearly in sync with Lady Lancer\u2019s <\/em>launch from the opposite side of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

\u201c While the students have put hard work into the development of these instruments, the real hard work begins upon launch.\u00a0 They will be following the boat and drifter, analyzing data from the boats and adding those data points to other data available from sources like the Pioneer Array and other data sets that are publicly available, to ask questions about the physical and chemical functions of the ocean and atmosphere,\u201d said Michael O\u2019Connor, Waterford High School Marine Science teacher.\u00a0 \u201cThe project serves as a launching point to do some independent analysis and to connect with and contribute to the world through science, art, and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students have provided digital ways for everyone to follow along with these trans-Atlantic crossings:<\/p>\n

Both Lancer<\/em> and Lady Lance<\/em>, once at sea, will be trackable from https:\/\/educationalpassages.org\/events\/atsea\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Lady Lance and her drifter can be tracked here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/studentdrifters.org\/tracks\/drift_whs_2022_1.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Lady Lance\u2019s drifter data can be accessed here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/studentdrifters.org\/tracks\/drift_whs_2022_1.dat<\/a>\u00a0 or .csv<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday November 13, 2022, the Pioneer 19 Team and crew of the R\/V Neil Armstrong switched gears from their Pioneer recovery operations to launch a mini-boat and a drifter.\u00a0 Both were constructed by\u00a0 high school students from Waterford, CT, with the help of fourth grade Waterford students, who decorated its sails and hull. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":533702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[103],"tags":[31,28,182],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533694"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":533729,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533694\/revisions\/533729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/ooi-expedition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}