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The Programme The education programme was developed especially for children between ten and thirteen years old and presents a unique opportunity to learn by experience a lot about nature, the environment and seafaring life. Our programme is broken into five learning stations:
Each station on the ALBATROS lasts between 20 and 30 minutes. During that time, our goal is not to teach as much information to the children as we can, rather, it is to expose them to things they might not otherwise get a chance to see and touch. Through this experience, we hope they develop an appreciation of the natural world and a respect for the life within it. The ALBATROS programme is very structured, but lends itself to exploring the many activities which make up daily life on the water. The ALBATROS is as "Classroom of the Waves" a unique environment for teaching children. Obviously, it is not the kind of classroom they are used to. The teaching is done by volunteers, who live on board together with the crew. They are essential part of our education programme under the supervision of a professional teacher. Most of them never worked with children before. During an extensive training the teacher shows them all they need to know. They experience a way of life and working based on cooperation, consideration, team work and communication. The ALBATROS programme takes three to five hours and is well designed for the many schools we sail with. We start by splitting each visiting group ( max. 36 children) into smaller sections of six to eight people each. These small groups visit the different hand-on learning stations scattered around the deck of the ALBATROS, each focusing on one of the topics mentioned above. We want to make sure that all the students can participate personally in the activities at each stations, therefore, we set up a schedule which rotates the groups to each of the stations. The vounteers play two important roles in this system. The first is that of group leader guilding the children through the scheduled activities. The second role is that of station leader. This person is responsible for teaching at a given station, getting students involved in the topic at hand. Thus, for both the children and the volunteers the ALBATROS experience is innovative and engaging. Safety on board is always the first priority. The crew, the teacher and the volenteers make sure the children follow our safety guidelines which they receive from the captain after coming on board the ALBATROS. And last but not least, discipline is rarely a problem, most children want to be on the boat and are thrilled with the whole overwhelming experience. |
