General Questions: | Classroom Questions: |
General Questions
1. How can I/we contact the students and others aboard the ship?
There are two ways you can contact Class Afloat students: first, you can send questions for the Class Afloat students to us at Ocean Challenge by letter or e-mail (ocean@oceanchallenge.com). The best questions will be relayed by satellite to the ship. Some of the answers will appear in the bi-weekly newsletter and on this web site. Second, mailing addresses for most of the port stops will be posted on this web site soon.
2. Will Concordia visit the U.S. this year?
Concordia is departing from San Diego, but that will be her only U.S. port. Check in Ship's Log for her Itinerary. She is sailing around the world in the opposite direction from last year (red line in Position).
3. Does Ocean Challenge run the Class Afloat program on board Concordia?
No, we at Ocean Challenge create the onshore linkage program to schools and homes in a partnership arrangement with Class Afloat. Our mission is to link such adventures to schools and homes, and Class Afloat's mission is to run their school. By this partnership, Class Afloat gets to extend their teaching reach through our Ocean Challenge network. If you are interested in going aboard Concordia as a teacher or student in the future, contact us at Ocean Challenge (ocean@oceanchallenge.com or 1-617-357-0055) and we will be happy to refer you to the appropriate person at Class Afloat.
4. When did you team up with Tom Snyder Productions?
Just this past June. It's a terrific alliance, since they have been leaders in technology in education for many years and have created a terrific product line for the classroom. We are extremely pleased that they have recognized our programs as not only innovative in the use of adventures as the focal point for learning, and innovative in the use of technology, but also, most importantly, as being effective in the classroom. We couldn't ask for a better partner to bring our programs to a wider and more credible reach.
5. Is Ocean Challenge planning on creating further linkage programs?
Yes, definitely! Two programs are in conceptual development now. The first will be announced later in the fall.
6. I remember the great adventure that you did with the Voyage of Great American II. I followed it on Prodigy back in 1993. Are you planning any other voyages aboard the trimaran?
Yes, probably in about 2 years, so stay tuned!
Questions specific to Class Afloat: The Classroom Program 1996-97
1b. How does this program work?
Adventures, expeditions and events are real people doing real things in real time with real consequences. As such, they demonstrate the active application of subjects which might be dry in a textbook, but which, when used in the real world, come alive. They get students to think beyond the walls of their classroom, beyond the local mall, and beyond their local community or city. Kids love the fact that this program is a real event with real people, happening right now! You and your students will find Class Afloat to be a great out-of-textbook experience! You will also find that kids like learning from the older Class Afloat students. Another result we've seen is that your students may be inspired to try and reach their own personal goals.
2b. Is it a science, social studies, math, languge arts or geography program? Or all of the above?
All of the above. When you imagine the voyage being undertaken, you can see why last year, our Class Afloat teachers used the program to teach social studies, language arts, science, math, geography, history, nutrition, marine biology and environmental science. In a sense, you are limited only by your imagination.
3b. Can I only do the Full Year program of Class Afloat, or can I sign up for either the Fall Semester or Spring Semester separately?
You have the option to sign up for either the Full Year or the Fall Semester or the Spring Semester.
4b. If I sign up late will my students miss crucial parts of the program?
Ideally, it is best to subscribe as soon as possible, but Concordia still has many miles to sail! When
you do sign up, we'll send you back issues of the newsletters that you have missed. But don't delay
for too long!
5b. Can you describe your elementary school guide?
Our new elementary school guide divides the journey into 5 thematic units: exploration; oceans; cultural diversity; peace; and folktales. Each theme correlates to 4 issues of Class Afloat News. We have created a wealth of activities around the them as well as math, science, social studies, and language arts. Furthermore, we have include much resource information on the places and ports that Concordia will visit. In that arena, we did your homework for you! Less prep time!
6b. What's in the middle school guide?
The middle school guide includes student project teams so that students can work on projects related to the various aspects of the Class Afloat voyage. You may use or modify the suggested activities to meet the learning needs of your students. You will find the following teams: Life Skills Team; Technology and Life Support Systems; Sailing and Navigation; Geography and Weather; Nutrition and Health; History; Culture; Politics, Economics, and Trade; and Environmental Issues.
Last year 1/2 of our teachers were middle school, 1/4 were elementary, and 1/4 were high school. This confirmed our belief that in an adventure such as this one, there is something useful to be learned at every age level.
7b. How long is the video? What does it feature?
The video includes four separate segments which total about 36 minutes. It includes the following segments:
- Class Afloat '95-'96, taken onboard, 12:59
- New York to Boston, June '95, Connecticut Public Television, 8:35
- Arrival in Boston, June '95, New England Cable News, 3:25
- At Sea off South Africa, January '95, South African TV, 10:57
You will see:
Here are some helpful hints for using this web site.
1. This site is best used with either Netscape 3.0 or Internet Explorer 3.0. It is friendly to both. Other browsers, or versions may not precisely read all of our intended formatting.
2. We have included streaming audio that is playable by the free, downloadable Real Audio player. For Netscape 3.0, Real Audio is fairly easily downloaded and plugged in. Internet Explorer 3.0 comes with Real Audio already installed in the software.
3. IMPORTANT!! Your web browser, to save time, looks in its CACHE where it stores pages that have previously been downloaded to see if the particular page that you're clicking to is there, and, so to speak, CACHED. If it has been, it pulls that page out of your hard drive, INSTEAD of pulling a new page down from our server.
For sites that are rarely updated, that works fine, BUT, since we update logs and positions almost daily, and journals and Q&A weekly, you may not be getting Class Afloat's latest information, but may be getting an old copy of our page that has been CACHED on your hard drive. THEREFORE, you must EMPTY your cache OFTEN or RELOAD or REFRESH pages often to make sure you're staying current with Concordia.
4. We highly recommend that you remove your Toolbar, Location and Directory Buttons (under Options) so that you can expand the viewable page as much as possible. Those students aboard Concordia have a lot to say!
Ocean Challenge / e-mail: ocean@oceanchallenge.com / Class Afloat '96-'97