The International Arctic Buoy Programme (IABP) Float Your Boat team invites polar educators to participate in the Float Your Boat project during the upcoming school year with learners of all ages in both formal and non-formal settings.
Float Your Boat is a project for community members and students to learn about the Arctic Ocean – its circulation, its sea-ice cover, and how it’s changing.
How it works:
- Polar Educators request 8-inch-long wooden boats, stamped with a number and web address. OR - you can make your own boats using the specific specifications and Float Your Boat team support.
- Polar Educators teach learners about the Arctic Ocean circulation, sea ice, and how it is changing. Here are a few lesson ideas to get you started. (We continue to expand this page.)
- Learners decorate boats and then educators return them to UW Polar Science Center.
- Float Your Boat organizers load wooden boats onto an icebreaker or airplane bound for the Arctic Ocean during the early summer.
- The crew deploys your boat on an ice floe in the Arctic Ocean, along with a GPS buoy during the buoy field season (mid March - mid-September).
- Everyone can track the drift of their boat by following the location of the buoy as well as the icebreaker vessel locations as they are underway in the Arctic Ocean.
- Boats will eventually end up in the North Atlantic Ocean when the ice drifts out of the Arctic and melts setting each boat on its own voyage.
- Someone may find your boat on a distant shore and report their find through the website (typically years from now).
- Float Your Boat organizers will contact you and let you know!
We are excited to invite you to participate this year. Please complete the ‘Request for Wooden Boats’ form by August 1st, 2023 for the first round of shipments in September.
There will be follow-up communication with you via email to make arrangements for you and your learners to participate.
We look forward to seeing your request forms coming in soon.
Regards,
Sarah Johnson, Ignatius Rigor, and Dave Forcucci
IABP Float Your Boat Team
University of Washington Polar Science Center
arcticfloatboat@gmail.com
970-510-0697 (Sarah’s number)
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