Education

Sail The Odyssey Educational Program

Classroom in Funafuti, Tuvalu

The Ocean is under the most unprecedented threat in human history… and is critical to enabling life to exist on Earth. Yet … the Ocean and the life within it are the least understood components of our planet.
— The Oceans in Crisis – International Program on the State of the Ocean, 2013

The Sail the Odyssey Educational Program will bring schools together across the world and educate children and young people in the most urgent issues facing the oceans, by telling the real stories of those people most affected by these issues: sailors, families, islanders and local communities.

The education program launches in the summer of 2014 with the start of the Blue Planet Odyssey round the world sailing event.

Science: Secchi Disk readings in the Arctic

The Blue Planet Odyssey will raise awareness of the state of the oceans and the global effects of climate change by visiting some of the endangered places on our planet, such as

• the Northwest Passage in the Arctic,
• the San Blas Islands in the Atlantic Ocean;
• the Galapagos, the Great Barrier Reef and Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean;

In partnership with UNESCO-IOC, the Odyssey yachts will help scientists to gather data from remote parts of the ocean rarely visited by other vessels.

Yachts will send back meteorological data and deploy drifter buoys at sea, which schools will be able to track online.

Sailors will participate in citizen science projects by observing seabirds, marine wildlife, monitor phytoplankton, plastic pollution, and record coral reef status.

Schoolwork aboard – Photo S/V FLEUR DE SEL

Participation in the Sail the Odyssey program is open to all schools, although the core will come from:

• schools in the home towns and ports of the Odyssey participants
• schools located in the starting places of the Odyssey events
• schools on the endangered islands and communities on the Odyssey route

What’s included?

• Follow the stories of the Odyssey sailors and the people they meet via online films, yacht satellite trackers, blogs, newsletters and social media
• Make links to other schools and to Q&As with experts
• Create real-life links with schools around the world as sailors take part in local community projects
• Get resource packs containing souvenir Blue Planet Log magazines and other materials
• Download resources for the classroom on the most urgent issues facing our oceans as well as profiles of the key places en route

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