Impacts by the Numbers

Float Your Boat is proud to share the programatic impacts from June 2023-May 2024. In only a couple short years this program has increased in reach and impact ten fold thanks to intentional programmatic capacity building, excellent work by educators around the world facilitating deep sticky learning, strong relationships with all the ship captains, and scientists and researchers who have deployed boats across the Arctic Ocean. Here are the stats:

• Approximately 3,974 learners of all ages from across the USA and the around the world participated

• Collectively 2230 wooden boats were constructed and branded

• 37 schools participated

• 5 non-formal education programs participated

• At least 50 educators taught Arctic and climate change curriculum

• Each learner spent an average of 12 hours engaged in learning about the Arctic

• In total, people spent approximately 42,562 hours engaged in Arctic learning

• 17 stories were told through blogs on FloatBoat.org/stories

• The website had 4,656 unique sessions

• 17 wooden boats were reported found on beaches in 6 different countries primarily in the North Atlantic

Read many quotes from learners and educators below the blue infographic.

This is a lot to celebrate for everyone connected to this project. Float Your Boat program leads look forward to the coming years of this program and its impact on Arctic learning.

Float Your Boat by the Number 2023-2024

A few quotes from learners

• "We learned about how melting ice affects polar bears in the Arctic.We learned about the way and direction the ice flows in the Arctic. We learned that the Arctic is the best place to collect data about global warming." - Sasha

• "I remember learning that ice moves across the Arctic. I remember learning about ice being thicker in deeper parts of the Arctic." - Austin

• "Three things I learned about the Arctic are that the sea ice extent has seasons, in the summer the Arctic is light for long hours and is only light for a couple hours in the winter, and that Arctic sea ice has current." - Corbin

• "I learned that the arctic ecosystem is extremely fragile. Polar bears have to work harder and harder each day to find food." - Vishnu

• "Polar bears that are in zoos are much different than wild bears. Ice thickness and how it can affect animals." - Hannah

• "The arctic ice carries pollution. Arctic ice travels fast." - Kaitlyn

• "I learned about the polar bear population. I learned about the shortage of sea ice. I learned about collecting temperature data from the Arctic to put it on a graph." - Zoya

• "I remember that there are less polar bears in the Chukchi Sea than in the Beaufort Sea. I remember that the weather data from the Arctic was mostly in negative numbers. I also learned that there was a lot of sea ice disappearing." - Miles

A few ideas shared from educators

• "Participation in FYB definitely helped raise the level of polar literacy for these students!" - Dr. Olson
  

• "This project has been very well received by the students and the classroom teacher that I partnered with this year. One of the other benefits of the project has been community engagement. In the first year of our participation, students in the Calvert County Public Schools Career and Technology Academy cut the boats out for our middle school students. This year, a community group of model boat builders affiliated with our local marine museum cut the boats for us in their workshop. The volunteers were happy to be involved in a project that engaged students and are very interested in the project and the destination for the boats!" - Mr. Harten
  

• "This year students from my school used the provided plans to make the boats for us. I teach at a Tech School and so this was a really nice way for my marine science classes to work with our construction classes. My students absolutely love this program and I hope to be involved for many years to come. Thank you!" - Ms. Frump
  

• "We have connected this unit to an overall theme of Climate Justice. Each student is currently working on Exhibition projects to share their knowledge with the school. We have been doing a lot of comparisons between the Polar Regions as we work to understand the crucial Arctic lands and waters. It has been a great way for me to share my 2020 Expedition to Antarctica as a Grosvenor Fellow." - Ms. Turney
  

• "Float Your Boat program was part of the end-of-year exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and a large audience was able to admire our boats decorated by the students in a related video art/ installation. People who attended the exhibition were surprised and expressed admiration for the sensitivity and originality of the Float Your Boat project, combined with our decorations. This was an example of how art and science can dialogue and cooperate in a harmonious way, no longer divided but united for a common purpose: our planet." - Ms. Pastorelli
  

• "One of the highlights of participating in this project is that not only do our students see themselves as scientists, but they also learn more about how global changes can impact them locally here in New Jersey. Our arctic lessons drive our unit on global climate change. We start by posing the question "how do changes in the arctic impact us here in New Jersey?" and by the end of the unit, they're able to answer this question using a Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) format. More importantly than academic lessons, our students seem more engaged and in tune with current events and are able to make stronger connections between the science learned and their lives outside the classroom after the completion of this unit of study. For example, one student came back from the Smithsonian and spoke with their teachers about explaining some exhibits to their peers. Another student had visited Iceland with their family and was now able to explain the dark patches they saw on the ice." - Ms. Bugge