Program Overview

Major Concepts:

  • Ecology
  • History
  • Practical Life Skills
  • Team/Community Building Skills

Ecology:

  • Water quality sampling

    • Salinity: How salinity changes in different places in the Bay and why that occurs
    • Turbidity
    • pH
    • Nitrates/Nutrients: As an estuary, how water is cleaned in the Bay, and where are the sources of nutrients? What are the responsibilities of the shareholders on the waterway both upstream and downstream (riparian rights)?
    • Plankton: Phytoplankton and zooplankton. The amount and type help determine the health of the water column
  • Sea Level Rise:
    • Tangier Island - How sea level rise affects the culture and future of the island community. Causes of Sea Level Rise - Climate change and warming seas. How do these things contribute to the ice melt on continental ice? What communities can do to combat or adapt to it?
  • Overfishing and Overuse of Resources: How oyster harvests caused a chain reaction in trophic levels in the Bay. The correlations between the decline in oyster reefs and the increase in turbidity and nutrients in the Bay that lead to the decline of seagrasses and other important species.
  • Degradation of Habitats: Marshes and their importance as shoreline stabilization, flood control, and nurseries.
  • Microplastics in the environment

History:

  • Tangier Island: Economy, history, and isolation and how it affects a culture
  • Yorktown: 
    • Revolutionary War: Battlefield visit and interpretation. How global allies with the French saved the Revolutionary Army from being defeated.
    • Civil War: Why the Bay and Hampton Roads were important to the war effort.
  • Hampton Roads: Trade, commerce, and how it became home to the U.S. Navy. It’s strategic importance and diversity.
  • Indigenous cultures:
    • Techniques for food and resources
    • Names of places in the Chesapeake Bay and what the names mean.
    • Interaction with the first Europeans.

Practical Life Skills:

  • Meal preparation
  • Taking care of the environment (cleaning the general maintenance of the boat)
  • Responsibility: The responsibility of being able to explore in groups without direct supervision
  • Standing Watch (Anchor Watch)

Team Building and Community:

  • Planning and preparing meals onboard
  • Sail handling
  • Working as a crew to ensure smooth operations while underway
  • Working together on projects with the curriculum. Group presentations.

How it Works:

  • Key Lessons:
    • Information Cards: These are cards that are designed to give pertinent information to help launch the participants into the investigation. For example, a card set may be on water quality testing and various cards explain why that test is important and how to properly conduct the test.
      • Seagrasses and Marshes
      • Watersheds and Geography
      • Oysters and Trophic Levels: Ecology-Disrupted Oyster Study
      • Water Testing: Information sheet set
      • Plankton
      • Connections and Shifting Baselines
      • Solutions
    • Hands-on instruction: The Captain and Mate have direct instruction in the moment and to help guide actions. An example would be general sailing knowledge, sail handling, and history walks.
      • Basic Sailing: Points of Sail, tacking, jibing, how a sail works, etc.
      • Basic Navigation: Course, Compass, Headings, Bearings, Aids to Navigation, etc.
      • Knots and Line Handling
      • Walk through the Yorktown Battlefield
    • Presentations: Youth use information that they collected to give a presentation on a specific topic that they are interested in. They prepare a short presentation to engage the other members of the crew.  These could be based on anything from the information cards to the Socratic conversations.
    • Socratic Conversations: Guided conversations to help with a deeper understanding of concepts and complex ideas. Some basic readings or a series of thought questions for participants to reflect on. An example would be the instructor posing open-ended questions to foster discussion on riparian rights and who has the rights to the water in a watershed. 
      • Riparian Rights 
      • Climate Change and How Communities are Coping
      • Brainstorm Solutions to issues facing Chesapeake Bay and home communities