HUNTINGTOWN, Md. – On June 11, 2024, Tom Harten, a teacher with Calvert County Public Schools CHESPAX Environmental Education Program, opened his email to find that one of his small wooden boats had been discovered on the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve in Iceland.
The boat was part of the larger Float Your Boat initiative, which provides students with a unique opportunity to learn about the changing Arctic region and contribute to research conducted by polar scientists. Through this program, students decorate small wooden boats equipped with GPS beacons. These boats are placed on Arctic ice to track ice movement and ocean currents.
Photo Credit: Float Your Boat (Boat 234106 found by Isabelle Price at Hornstrandir Nature Reserve in northern Iceland)The wooden boat discovered in Iceland was decorated by a student who participated in the Calvert County Public Schools Science and Engineering Expo. This particular boat was sent to the North Pole by the German research vessel Polarstern and deployed on the ice on September 13, 2023. It was eventually found by Isabelle Price while visiting Hornstrandir Nature Reserve in northern Iceland.
Harten emphasized that the project would not be possible without the support of the Calvert Marine Museum. “Their boat builder guild has been a great partner in cutting out the boats for our students,” he said.
For more information on the Float Your Boat initiative and recent Arctic deployments, visit floatboat.org.
Details on Harten’s boat discovery are available at floatboat.org/post/capturing-imagination-hornstrandir-nature-reserve.
Photo Credit: Float Your Boat (Boat 234106 decorated, boxed, and ready to ship to North Pole via the Polarstern Icebreaker)Contact our news desk at news@thebaynet.com
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