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July 31, 2000
Solomons to Australia voyage - Update #13
Lat/Long as of 12.35 hrs local time
12 degs 56. 03’ S
152 degs 59. 30’E
Day 14. Wind SE 25 knots. Heading 210
The last 12 hours has been grueling. I wouldn’t mind except for the discouraging fact that we’re going nowhere fast. We seem to be in a strange cycle that allows no forward progress. However, the same amount of effort is required on the pedals just to keep at a standstill. So how does my mind deal with these adverse conditions? I create lessons for my classroom drawing from my immediate experience here on the boat. Using our Classroom Expedition curriculum, my kids will draw on their prior knowledge of living space, location and daily activities transfering them abstractly to the Moksha Classroom. In this I will recreate Moksha’s real-life dimensions and outside environment. Kids will then have the opportunity to step from the world they know into a virtual one they know nothing about. Within this new world we will study the five themes of geography, directional headings on the compass, longitude and latitude. My thought is to create an experiential learning environment to keep an element of fun in each individual child’s learning experience. So, I’ve created a new game. When American kids go on holiday they play the license plate game as they travel, listing as many state license plates as they see. I have a British version for the Coral Sea called Fish and Ships. In this game you list as many as you find in the catagories. Moksha and I played this yesterday.
Fish – 0. There are no fish in the Coral Sea. The water is far too wild and they’ve all emigrated to a better life elsewhere. The only marine life I’ve seen are a pair of Boobies that have been with us since Guadalcanal. Mr + Mrs Bird (intimately known to us as Mick and Stacia) visit us every day and report on sea conditions and what the weather’s looking like up ahead.
Ships – 3. Its been interested to observe patterns in these three ships, the hull shape giving a few clues as to the craft’s possible function. This requires keen attention to detail and description. We’ve actually found this game to be a bit boring, but in an actual classroom setting children are only limited by their imaginations.
April
Posted on July 31, 2000 2:32 PM