Students of the IES Garoé in El Hierro launch an educational sailing boat into the sea to study its journey across the Atlantic Ocean

Students from the IES Garoe on the island of El Hierro have launched the educational sailing boat Canarias V – iFADO into the sea, aiming that it would cross the Atlantic from east to west pushed by the trade winds. The activity runs within the framework of the Educational Passages training program which brings marine sciences to the classroom, in collaboration with the European iFADO project, with the EDUROVs educational project and the coordination of the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN).

The small sailing boat was prepared at the PLOCAN headquarters in Gran Canaria with the collaboration of students from the Special Education Center of the CIVITAS Association of Gran Canaria.

Prior to the launch, a training session was held at the La Restinga Cultural Center in which students from CEIP La Restinga also participated and in which the head of the PLOCAN Innovation Unit, Ayoze Castro, gave a talk on the decade of the oceans and the sciences and technologies to study them, which was transmitted live to the IES Eusebio Navarro, in Tazacorte, on La Palma, which will receive an educational boat in the coming months.

The Canarias V – iFADO sailing boat is equipped with GPS and a temperature sensor powered by a small solar panel installed on the surface of the boat. Pushed by the winds and ocean currents, it will drift and its route can be observed in real time through the Educational Passages website, so that students can learn more, and in an interactive way, about the dynamics of ocean currents. and winds.

EDUROVs aims to build robots from low-cost materials, with free software and hardware, to bring students closer to science and technology in a practical way and stimulate professional vocations in the field of technology, and has the support from CaixaBank, through a financial contribution from the “la Caixa” Foundation, as well as from the Government Area for Economic Development, Energy Sovereignty, Climate and Knowledge of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria and PLOCAN.

Educational Passages: https://educationalpassages.org/ Educational Passages is a project aimed at disseminating environmental learning and knowledge, and in particular that of the ocean environment. It is based on small sailing boats equipped with GPS capable of following winds and ocean currents, allowing students of all ages to explore ocean phenomena while developing transoceanic training classrooms.

The primary goal of Educational Passages is to introduce participants to the world of sailing, engage students in collaborative learning through international cultural experiences, and increase understanding of the value of the hydrosphere as a shared resource through knowledge of the ocean environment. The program allows you to bring the ocean into the classroom, whether you are on the coast or inland.

iFADO: http://www.ifado.eu/The Interreg Atlantic iFADO project aims to create marine services on a regional and sub-regional scale, using the Atlantic waters of the European Union as a case study. Filling existing technical gaps, iFADO will use the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) to demonstrate the application of innovative products.


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