Students from the Special Education Centre of the CIVITAS Association have collaborated in the preparation of a small sailing boat destined to cross the Atlantic from east to west pushed by the trade winds as part of the Educational Passages educational program, which brings the ocean to the classroom in collaboration with the European projects iFADO and EDUROVs.
Once the small ship has been prepared at the facilities of the CIVITAS Association, next to the Guiniguada ravine, it will move to the island of El Hierro where the students of the IES Garoé will launch it in the next few months in the south of the island, to start a solo navigation to the coast of the American continent that all students that participate in the educational program will be able to follow in real time.
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. CaixaBank, through an economic contribution from the “la Caixa” Foundation, the Government Area for Economic Development, Energy Sovereignty, Climate and Knowledge of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, and PLOCAN promote this project.
Educational Passages is a project aimed at disseminating environmental learning and knowledge, in particular related to ocean environment. It is based on small sailing boats equipped with GPS capable of following ocean winds and currents, allowing students of all ages to explore ocean phenomena while developing transoceanic training classrooms.
The main objective of Educational Passages is to introduce the participants to the world of navigation, 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 to bring the ocean into the classroom, on the coast or inland.
The aim of the Interreg Atlantic iFADO project is to create marine services on a regional and sub-regional scale, using European Union waters as a case study. Filling the existing technical gaps, iFADO will use the implementation of the Framework Directive on Marine Strategy. (FDMS) to demonstrate the application of innovative products.
The project combines traditional surveillance with profitable, cutting-edge technologies: remote sensing, numeric modelling and emerging observation platforms such as gliders and oceanic buoys. One of the project’s dissemination objectives is to involve citizens with initiatives such as the Educational Passages, in which five boats will be launched in collaboration with different schools from five European countries: Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
