Educational Passages Podcast
Educational Passages Podcast
More than a Miniboat (Part 2): Connecting in Ireland
From the Cliffs of Moher to the classrooms of Galway, our trip to Ireland in March with Educational Passages highlights the magic of ocean education. This is the second part of a conversation with Juliet Fluty (click here to listen to part 1). It dives into all the details behind the visits we mentioned in our blog post: educationalpassages.org/miniboat-magic-in-ireland/.
The trip to Ireland unveiled profound connections that have been made through our miniboat program, and the impact is has had on communities involved. We explore the journeys of students, the warmth of local hospitality, and the importance of the ocean in education and our lives.
To access the special VIDEO version of this podcast, visit https://youtu.be/FTHFK8uzZ5k.
Educational Passages is a non-profit organization that seeks to connect people around the world to the ocean and each other through unique global experiences.
you, this is more than a mini boat. Part two, all about all about our trip to Ireland we took back in March when we had Juliette Flutie with us as an intern, who, since graduated Lisa Swanson, also joined us. So hear more about all of the adventures and the things that we connected with above and beyond Mini Maine.
Speaker 2:Definitely needed a part two because you know there was so much more than us Like. Obviously going into the classrooms were amazing and connecting with the kids, but the community members that we connected with and the real like trying to process the impact that educational passages has just needed a whole episode into itself. So here we are, part two, let's get into it.
Speaker 3:We drove down to the Cliffs of Moher, which was absolutely amazing, before anybody else showed up.
Speaker 3:And then we did our trip to Cary and Waterville and reconnected with Mini Maine and all of that. But our adventures took us down to Cork which is where Lisa's project was based. We were greeted by Nadine and another student at Berry Row, which was amazing because Nadine is the niece of Mary Graves who received the mini boat in Nantucket and helped us with that relaunch. Nadine had received the Crimson Current at Barry Rowe the previous school year and she went back for Thanksgiving got to see it in person. So we were warmly greeted by the students. They had signs on the door welcome Lisa and Cassie and educational passages and we walk into the classroom and the whole bulletin board was about the project and the map and the tracking and the letters inside and the newspaper article of the students in the news. Absolutely incredible, warm welcome. We were greeted by the whole community up front of people that have been involved.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the profound impact of, like the communities just walking in the door was just amazing to me Because again, coming like we were talking about in the last episode, like coming in from kind of an outsider perspective onto a project that's kind of been ongoing for a really long time, seeing the impact of this project to the kids was just amazing.
Speaker 2:This project to the kids was just amazing and seeing how, you know, rory probably wouldn't have or maybe he would have, knowing Rory, the man, the myth and the legend himself, you know, going into the classroom and connecting him, you know, kind of similar to what I'm doing with the mini main and connecting him to all these different topics that go along with the mini boat. That may not have happened, like these kids may not have been, you know, exposed to that kind of education, and Rory would have never been able to meet them and Billy wouldn't be able to talk about you know, we'll get more into it but be able to talk about what he does in fishing around Ireland and stuff like that, like the connections and, you know, all the pinpoints that these mini boats are creating, is just so amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's. What stood out to me is that the Barry Rowe community was a very intricate community that got involved in helping every single student take part in this. So when the Crimson Current ended up in the cave, Billy recovered it and brought it home. Katie, his daughter, got to open it and see all the stuff. She sent the letter to Morristown Baird Hi, I'm Katie and I could read that whole thing off. But then Rory helped bring it into the classroom and he made sure Billy and Katie were in the room when the boat was brought to the classroom. And yeah, Rory's been fantastic and he did these extra learning projects and he's volunteering his time to do that.
Speaker 3:But the community that comes together help the students learn. That's another shared thing between all of us that we're seeing it in Ireland, we see it here in the US. Part of the mini boat magic and what Educational Passages has to offer, I think with every little mini boat. But the Morristown Baird students back in New Jersey had been pen-palling with the students at Barry Rowe back and forth multiple times. They sent each other holiday, Christmas cards and care packages and just a really great back and forth. Back and forth, you know, care packages and just a really great back and forth, back and forth and we got to Zoom with them while we were there at Berry Road during this visit and one of the you know the students that had been the original pen pal students or the receivers of the boat had actually moved to a different school because they had kind of graduated to a new class and so they ended up busing back to different schools because the students had spread out and they all came back and that room was full.
Speaker 3:It was full of a brand new class with Sinead, her new students and then her older students and they all came back for this. And we heard from Amira on the Zoom saying that she really missed it. She missed having a pen pal. Something was missing in her life. So glad we get to make these connections.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it was really cool to see both sides of the generations of students with the exposure to this project. I think it was cool for Sinead's current students to see oh, this is what we're going to do. This is, you know, getting them excited about the connection Lisa mentioned that they're still going to keep doing.
Speaker 3:You know, their connection and things like that with their ongoing yeah, and how do you again onboard new students to a project that had been so deeply involved with the students the year before? You're right, it was great for those kids to see that excitement, to see what was possible and to know that they get to be a part of the next step as well, because those boats, that their boat, was back at sea. It was launched the day that we left Ireland actually, and so we can actively track that and see where it goes and, who knows, maybe it'll end up back in Cork.
Speaker 2:Ireland and like that's the thing too, like all these boats that are still out there, you're still making the connections, even if they're out in sea. Like you don't necessarily need to, you know, have a kit and build a boat to really make those connections. You can make the connections with boats that have already, you know, that are already out there. I think that's what you know, that's what mini Maine, especially, is all about, because my kids don't necessarily get to actually see the boat, but they are heavily involved in the global citizenship aspect of EP and everything that we do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we talked about that on our part. One for those that haven't listened to it yet.
Speaker 2:Go listen to it.
Speaker 3:And we're also by being there in person we're able to talk to Tom McSweeney a little bit about the bigger picture and educational passages, that this is one boat of over 200. So think about the amazing connections and the students involved and that this is just one of many. So Tom is a well-known news reporter. He's got his own podcast, maritime Ireland, very respected in the maritime industry all around Ireland. He has been following the students at Barry Rowe. He was at the port of Cork when they dropped off the mini boat so that it could be relaunched off the independent container line. He's been there for every part of the story and I think that really helps share their work. And again, those community ties are really important. And then you were able to be interviewed and share a little bit about your internship, which made me really proud.
Speaker 2:Having people like that, wanting to share what these students are doing, just makes the whole lot of difference.
Speaker 3:And then we had like a three-hour tea.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love tea. Teacher's room after.
Speaker 3:It was wonderful, it was a great day, yeah, so we'll put a link to Tom's podcast and that interview in the show notes. We also recorded that whole Zoom and the connection between classes so you can see the perspective from the students in New Jersey, their reactions and also those in Ireland, and I think that's what it's about is how are they responding to these connections? It's exciting for all of us and the community members, but we really, because that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:So the next day was another rainy day, but we went over to Billy McCarthy's house and he gave us a tour of the cove where he keeps his boat. He's a fisherman. He told us about, you know, his family connection to that place as well, which was really neat. And then we kind of climbed around and went inside this giant rocky cave where the mini boat had been found and it makes so much sense as to why it was there. He explained to us how the winds and the currents work in that area, where he knew right away when we told him that there was a boat in that area where it might be. So thanks and shout out to Billy for bringing us around and sharing your stories.
Speaker 2:After we went to Billy's, we were able to hang out with our friend, rory Jackson, who runs the Ocean Plastics Project. We were able to see his whale watching boat, which, for me personally, I'm very passionate about boating and I'm working on my captain's license right now so he was able to share with us, you know, things that he does with his Ocean Plastics Project and the community outreach that he does to spread awareness of marine debris, and it was just amazing to hear someone you know who's done similar projects that I have in the past and seeing his perspective of the impact that he does with his passions.
Speaker 3:And then we saw it in real life in the beach where he keeps his boat and all the marine debris that washes up in that area. So that was a little eye-opening as to some of the things that we saw there. Yeah, we went to dinner afterwards as well. We had more conversations, we were able to talk to rory more about his work and we thanked everybody involved and gave them their mini boat crew tumblers and gushers, which is a US candy. It was really interesting to see their reactions to that.
Speaker 1:It was a fun interaction.
Speaker 3:So the next day while we were in Cork we went downtown and we went to the old Cork Waterworks and met Mervyn and I had worked with Mervyn a few years ago on the HVAS Cruiser miniboat. That project had gone through COVID and they got some support from Creative Ireland to make it an art project and they submitted artwork and designs and ended up printing them on a vinyl wrap that went around the miniboat.
Speaker 2:Fancy schmancy it was awesome. Those kids were so excited about the project and even they made like a book of all of the students artwork that Mervyn was able to show us, and it was so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was well over 300 entries, I think, and this is just from one. This was just cork. We had very like a half an hour visit with Mervyn.
Speaker 2:We had to get going. Yeah, that could have easily been a whole day trip in itself.
Speaker 3:Because we had a tour up in Galway at the Marine Institute that we were trying to get there in time for Amazing. So I had seen the lobby of the Marine Institute through the eyes of photographs and press releases. The mini boat named Lancer and press releases the mini boat named Lancer. I remember the videos and how the student named Caitlin and her teacher, michael Connor, got to visit Ireland and they got to take the same tour that we did. But yes, I was geeking out.
Speaker 2:We were total nerds, total nerds.
Speaker 3:So my background is in ocean observations, the buoys and the gliders and the things that collect ocean data over here in the US. But it was really neat for me to see from the perspective of the Marine Institute that they have this similar infrastructure. We also got a tour of their lab and they had, like the image flow cytobot which is actually made over in the US, and we saw gliders which again are actually made in near where I live.
Speaker 2:So really to make those connections and be inspired to then help students see those connections, One of the things that I really enjoyed about the Marine Institute was like when we were walking around. When people like think of labs, they think of you know, people in white coats, they think of very science-y, very you know black and white and whatever else. But even us walking around and seeing the artwork that has been done and there were so many beautiful murals and they had two or three things of, like a fish that was entirely made of shells and just having that aspect of the integration of art and science I think is so important and so rare, because I feel like science in itself is an art form and like integrating that into, even visually, of the marine institute I think was really one of my favorite parts.
Speaker 3:Being someone who loves you know you, you too, like being people that love art, love, drawing, love, that intersection, and and then we ended up seeing the similar um artist artwork at the aquarium where we went over there that had done that mural at the Marine Institute. But when you were just describing about walking around the Marine Institute, what was eye-opening was that the jobs are not always in the lab is where my brain just went and how you know. There was offices but like rooms and just a lot of collaboration in this common area where people just go and meet and talk, and I think that's something else that's interesting is that science is not always in a lab with a lab coat. There is the marine technician and there's the, you know, the program manager and there's the science director and there's the data person. There's so many different jobs and that was one thing that was eye-opening for me for all of our trips around Galway A lot of working parts and a lot of opportunity that we can inspire these students to then go and pursue.
Speaker 2:And I think, especially, you know, in the US and I'm coming from this perspective of someone who is, you know, almost done with college, has, you know, been through COVID and all that in my student-led career I think, in our education system, of the way that we expose our students, of like, you need to know what you want to do when you go in, and there's only, you know, one thing that you can do once you get your degree. There are so many things that you can do with your degree. I mean, honestly, look at Cassie and I I mean she got her degree in marine science and mine is in marine science and education. I think I changed my major every single year of my time at UNE, and that's the thing is like you should do something that makes you happy and is integrating everything that you're learning as well as, like you know, bettering the world and yourself.
Speaker 2:And that's a huge thing that I've learned during my time at EP and during, you know, our trip was that you shouldn't be able, you shouldn't feel like you have to put yourself in a box with what you want to do, and you should be able to really like open up your sails and just coast wherever you feel as though you're passionate about and I think you know going to places like the Marine Institute and seeing all of these wonderful, different people like Shane and Kushala and all of them work together for a common goal of, like spreading awareness of what is going on, you know, in our oceans and you know the ocean connects us all and everybody's impacted by what's going on. So I think that was that was also, like, probably my favorite part. It's just seeing all of the different people that work together for a common goal and, even if they're all interested in the different aspects, they all collaborate in some way Kind of reminded that when I went to university I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do.
Speaker 3:I think I was part of the generation of oh, I'm going to be a dolphin trainer but knowing that that's not really exactly what I wanted to do and I didn't know what opportunities were out there, and so I think it's kind of like a mini boat you just got to jump in, launch yourself and see where it takes you and don't be afraid to just kind of drift along and see what opportunities. You go by and plant yourself somewhere if you want to. But it's okay to drift and adventure and learn, and I mean we're always learning.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing too, once you get to a different place, just like the mini boat, we're going to keep this corny thing going, just like the mini boat, every time you land somewhere, you're going to, you know, turn into something different and it's going to be beautiful, and then you just coast off to the next place.
Speaker 3:You relaunch yourself from another place. So go down the path that you want to. If you want to do marine science, go for it. Oceanography, go for it. You want to build boats, go for it.
Speaker 2:But don't forget where you've been. Keep that GPS track going. You can look back at different points, see how you got there, but keep sailing it.
Speaker 3:So, with that idea of career exploration and inspiration and education, I do have to shout out big time to Kushla and the Marine Education Explorers Program. So Friday morning, and this is the Friday before St Patrick's Day in Ireland- Still doesn't feel real.
Speaker 2:man Still does not feel real.
Speaker 3:I highly recommend being in Ireland during St Patrick's Day Absolutely incredible. But what was really great is we went to the LACA school in Galway and they were all decked out in green, in fanfare and shamrocks everywhere. So really proud of their culture, proud of that heritage, and we went to LACA. Of that heritage and we went to LACA.
Speaker 3:This is the school that I worked with through POGO, which is the Partnerships for Observations of the Global Ocean. We did an initiative together where they built and launched four mini boats from four countries who partnered their oceanography member with a school, built a mini boat. They all got launched off the research vessel, the Polarstern, on a north-south transect from Germany to Cape Town, south Africa. And so the LACA school was the partner from the National University in Galway, sheena Fennell had been the lead oceanographer to help the LACA students do the mini boat. They did such a fantastic job and it reminds me of the work you're doing with. You know they had the bulletin boards everywhere and they really did the science lessons at every part with the students as they were building it.
Speaker 2:That is just so cool. Can we just take a second to appreciate what opportunity for you to give to those students Like genuinely? They're not only getting their hands dirty making these boats, learning about learning about the ocean and everything like that, but they're also getting such global exposure to yeah, well, and that's something that pogo provided them.
Speaker 3:Sponsoring this project and initiative got these kids to learn and work directly with Sheena, an oceanographer, who is telling them hey, your boats are going to collect information about the ocean that I want. Right, our oceans are changing. The information you're collecting is helpful to me. You're right, that was an incredible program and model.
Speaker 2:Silence man. That is just so. That is so, so cool.
Speaker 3:It's going to contribute to everyone's better understanding of our changing ocean, and I can't think of a better way to do that and to help all the generations figure this out together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just so cool. All right, keep going.
Speaker 3:So we talked about it in the last episode of how our goal really is to help these experiences carry forward long term, and so there's nothing like hearing from a student what they remember, what carries forward with them, and learning. I got goosebumps at LACA because they had done this project in 22 and remembered all of it. I got to share with them where their boat went and the status of it. They made us posters. They had made us posters of the experience. There's newspapers all over the school. They were so proud of this initiative to have just built the boat and sent it out and that was the accomplishment, right, and of course there's a lot that goes into just to that moment. But then their boat was launched and it was actually the first launched in the South Atlantic.
Speaker 2:It was cool too because we were able to share the other mini boat stories while we were there and being able to be, like you know, have them reflect on their project. But also this is what other kids around Ireland are doing and the connections that they're making. I was able to talk about my project, lisa was able to talk about hers and like having that connection was really cool and to see their faces like oh, like that's where their mini boat went and connecting them oh yeah, I know there's interest.
Speaker 3:I know the boat's there, um we're, we need some help to to kind of move that thing forward. Because I asked the students what do you want to to do next and their reaction was can we?
Speaker 2:relaunch it.
Speaker 3:It's like well, so they want to see it go somewhere else again. So you know we'll have to work on that, and meanwhile they can track all these other boats that are out there. I said at the end that you know one of the students was. We had to go because you know there was going to be this concert and, oh, you're welcome to join us if you want yeah yeah, I just I still can't believe this was real.
Speaker 3:So we walked over to the auditorium and there was a few dozen students up front playing various musical instruments, traditional irish music. And there we were on the friday before saint patrick's Day in Ireland, sitting there with the children of LACA school celebrating with their music.
Speaker 2:I think that moment of seeing that school come together we were able to learn about, you know, irish dances and they threw us in there and we were dancing with some of the other teachers. It was incredibly embarrassing but it was super fun. We were able to dance and listen to their music and, you know, they had all of their students from the different classes in one gymnasium and I really think my super one of many, may I add, but super tear jerker moment was sitting. We were just about to leave and we had gone back for something and we were listening to the students and they, oh, I could cry thinking about it. They were all just kind of like hand in hand, like hand to shoulder, singing Ireland's call and they were all singing it collectively and just, you know, so, so proud to be where they're, where they're from. Um, you know, seeing that kind of community come together for, you know, the commonality of we love where we're from was just, it was unspeakable, it was just amazing and I loved it.
Speaker 3:I'm so glad you had that moment. We had an appointment for a tour at the Marine Institute and along the way the most magical thing happened.
Speaker 2:We were. We were driving with if you close your eyes and imagine it. We were driving down this long road. Give a little asmr moment. Driving down this long road with sheep on one, high on one side and and cows galloping on the other, green grass everywhere, with my celtic irish women playing in the background. And all of a sudden we look up and there's just this beautiful, not one, but double rainbow casting over our car. And it didn't just happen once, it happened multiple times, like four or five times. Four or five times. We saw these rainbows just casting over us and it was just the mini boat. Magic was there in the car. I'm telling you, let's talk about the weekend, shall we?
Speaker 3:So Saturday morning we met Noreen Burke at the Galway Atlantic Aquaria, which is the small little aquarium in Galway. So nice of Noreen to take her Saturday morning and hang out with us all morning.
Speaker 2:All morning. This was my geek moment, to be completely honest with you. At the University of New England. I also minor in aquaculture and aquarium sciences. It was such an amazing facility with so many just diverse organisms and the displays were just gorgeous.
Speaker 3:At one point it was really interesting. I had asked her you know, how did you get to be the director of this aquarium? Right, because I was really interested in everyone's pathway and their stories for how they got to these places. She said I grew up on a farm and I just thought that was really interesting, that she didn't necessarily have the I want to bring marine biologists, I want to live in the ocean. It was her path, just kind of took her there. So I just I love hearing those stories. So after, after the tour, we sat and had more tea, more delicious snacks I can't remember the names of any of them, but I just the hospitality is absolutely outstanding. I think I had coffee at that point because it was raining and we needed a little a little java, that was wonderful.
Speaker 3:So we got to sit with Noreen and so the another role Noreen plays is she runs the Irish Ocean Literacy Network and she's also heavily involved in the All-Atlantic Blue Schools.
Speaker 3:So this was a really great opportunity to sit and chat with her, because Lisa's school is actually pursuing certification as a USA Blue School, so we were really able to have that conversation, sit around the table and just talk about project ideas and how do you move forward ocean education on a bigger scale but also being a part of, you know, one small school. So that was really great opportunity to chat about that. And we got to talk a little bit more about the Marine Explorers Program, which has been another great initiative to bring in ocean education, kind of connect everybody around Ireland. But there's this bridge, there's this connection that the mini boats and EP provides to connect everyone around the ocean and it's not just one project, one classroom, one beach cleanup. I think it's the bigger conversations right, like you're doing with Mini Maine and the students between Maine and Ireland, that we need to talk to each other more and collaborate more and fix the ocean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because genuinely like that's what connects us and you know, being able to talk about these things with students from both sides and, you know, get that global perspective of our connecting ocean, I think is something rare but needs to be more normalized.
Speaker 3:Right and share ideas and work together to getting more people involved in doing that. While we were sitting there, we had invited Peter Cain to come by. I know Peter from one of these Explorers education programs. Peter and his school, kilglas National School, was actually the first Irish school to be certified as an EU Blue School and he did that with the Miniboat Project. So it was really great to meet Peter and to talk about again that experience and the work he does and kind of what more can we do when him and his students are really interested in doing more mini boat projects, which is great and really loops into that conversation we were having about how do we do more and get more people involved. We also ended up reconnecting with another mini boat from Maine, from Swans Island, called Black Rock, which landed up near the Cliffs of Moher back in 2017. And our last day, on our way to the airport, we went to the University of Limerick, which still has the boat on the shelf and wants to do something with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things that I thought was so cool when we visited University of Limerick and being able to see the boat was the excitement from the professors and the grad students of this project, and Gare was talking even about how there's a school literally across the street from the University of Limerick.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that his son goes to, I think Something like that, and he was like, oh, I can bring it over there and they could rebuild it, and we could do this and we could do that, and there was even more opportunity for the grad students to connect with students from that school across the road or whatever. Right.
Speaker 3:Well, this model of mentorship, exactly what you're doing the university. But speaking of grad students, so when Gare was taking us around, he introduced us to Pitar, who said, yeah, I recovered the boat and he was a grad student at the time. Now he's doing his postdoc. He pulled up the website and he said, yeah, that's me. And so he remembered that recovering it but really wants to connect back with the students that launched it. So we also have that opportunity now. So after the University of Limerick and again, that was another quick, like 30 minute tour. Really glad we did it, but we had to rush in and make our flight.
Speaker 2:And I cried a little inside.
Speaker 3:I cried a lot. It was. It was really tough to leave.
Speaker 2:It was also amazing yeah, I honestly like words, don't do all of the things that we did justice like it was not only like an amazing trip. That felt so right and I think for me personally, it's very rare for me to feel like I'm meant to be somewhere, I'm meant to be here, I'm meant to do this like in the longterm and like our trip genuinely. We were meant to be there, we were meant to make those connections because this is going to push educational passages to the next level, I think of making those global connections, of bringing communities together globally, not just locally. There's so much potential, even with just one trip, that I think really I don't know if it opened your eyes. It opened my eyes to the potential of this becoming really, really big.
Speaker 3:It's amazing to actually resurface something like the mini Maine that was one of the very first mini boats to be launched and that the crimson tide that was launched with it 12 years ago now are all back out in the ocean or getting back out there, and it's eye opening for me to be able to kind of offer maybe a new program or a new initiative for educational passages that is focusing on relaunches and connections and that it's more than a mini boat absolutely, but it's more than new mini boats much more than that.
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