Burlington kids connect to deep-sea explorers
Posted: 10-07-10
Burlington, Vermont - October 6, 2010
At the Burlington Boys & Girls Club, kids lined up to log onto a computer. They were talking to a friend halfway around the world.
Tanaya Walker, a 10-year-old, beamed, "I think that it's like, really cool!"
The Club's music director, Jeremy Ritz, traveled from Vermont to the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Greece. He's aboard the Nautilus, a ship that's all about teaching. Club member Whitney Thompson said, "We've learned how deep the water is at certain spots where he is, and what kinds of things are under water and what they're trying to figure out."
The Nautilus has a deep-sea rover that's mapping the floor of the Aegean. Wednesday, through a webcam, the kids saw how Jeremy's crewmates were scanning the top of an underwater volcano. They typed him questions like, "Have you seen any sharks?"
Ritz responded, "I have not even seen a fish over 20 centimeters!"
The scientist who discovered the sunken luxury liner the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic launched a science education program that hosts people like Ritz on his missions. The Boys & Girls Club of Burlington is one of only a few Clubs in the country chosen to take part.
"What I hope the kids learn," Ritz told WCAX News, "whether they're my kids at the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington or kids in high schools, the general public for that matter, is to just for a minute, be able to feel like they're on board this journey with us."
The Club wants members to get excited about science. Director Mary Alice McKenzie said "When kids are with us, we're going to try to bring opportunities to them that they might not otherwise be exposed to. So more and more, we're dedicating our resources to helping them develop aspirations for their lives."
Even when Jeremy Ritz gets back on dry land in Vermont this weekend, the learning continues. He'll have a year-long curriculum of geology and oceanography for the kids at the Club.
To learn more about the Nautilus, and to ask Jeremy Ritz questions online, click here.
To read about other projects from the Immersion Learning Program, visit this site.
Jack Thurston - WCAX New
