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Education Partners
  • NMoE
  • WhaleNet
  • NWIC
  •  
     
    Supported by AKTAŞ Group
     
    Education Portal to the World!

    To educate and inspire

    This page will serve as the gateway to a world of discovery for students who will follow our journeys.

    Vision: To give students the ability to follow a human powered circumnavigation journey, while providing relevant information of educational value online.

    We are seeking the participation of schools and classrooms worldwide in the educational pilot programs developed by our partners listed below. The guidelines and content enhanced by experienced educators will be shared freely with other instructors. The talking points from the journey will enable geography lessons, lessons on people, places and cultures, math, science, and physical education just to include a few.

      To specifically support the below educational programs and
      partners, please send your tax-deductible donations to:

      Around-n-Over, Education Fund
      PO Box 19662
      Seattle, WA 98109-6662
    Quick Links

    Dedicated pages: Parallel journals of the Pacific Crossing, with Altavista Babelfish translation:

    EDUCATION SPONSOR

    The PBSJ Foundation is how The PBSJ Corporation gives back to the communities in which its employees live and work. What began as the passion of individual employees for community service has thus become a hallmark of PBSJ's corporate culture. PBSJ supports worthy charitable causes ranging from scholarships to youth education and development programs through The PBSJ Foundation. With a grant from The PBSJ Foundation, Around-n-Over was tasked to develop online educational modules with a science and math focus.

    The PBSJ Corporation is an employee-owned family of businesses with expertise in engineering, environmental science, architecture, planning, and construction. Their purpose is to improve life for generations by advancing the quality of infrastructure-from basic modern conveniences for health and safety to economic drivers that power nations-and by promoting responsible stewardship of our planet's resources. Their professional depth and breadth foster a unique connectivity among people of diverse backgrounds and experience, which in turn promotes thoughtful collaboration and innovation to a myriad of challenges. They encourage this diversity by offering an environment of acceptance, inclusion, and continual learning.

    With its origins dating back to 1959 when Miami Lakes, the first planned "new town" in Florida was created, the company continued to expand its activities to sanitary engineering, highways and bridge work. The PBSJ Corporation was formed in 1973 as the stockholding entity over PBS&J and future subsidiaries. Expansion outside of Florida began during the 1980s, and by the end of the 1990s, the company's offices spanned the nation from coast to coast and was doing business in overseas. The company's service offerings also increased significantly over these decades, and the company developed a solid reputation for excellence in environmental sciences, planning, landscape architecture, architecture, program management, and associated disciplines to complement its strong, legacy engineering and construction management services. Today, The PBSJ Corporation has nearly 4,000 employees and 80 offices located throughout the United States and abroad.

    EDUCATION PARTNERS

    National Museum of Education, WhaleNet, Nortwest Invention Center, and Around-n-Over are collaborating in creating educational value. We at Around-n-Over could not be more grateful for the contributions of these fine institutions which support our dream.

    National Museum of Education (NMoE) is located in Akron, Ohio. NMoE's mission statement is to celebrate the learning, insight, creativity, and workmanship of America's students, teachers, administrators, and all those who have made a positive contribution to the educational process by recognizing and preserving their accomplishments for the inspiration of future generations.

    NMoE will be spearheading the educational activities surrounding our human powered journeys, starting with the Pacific crossing. Founded and led by Nick Frankovits, NMoE is staffed all by educators. They have been operating for the last 17 years, helping students and teachers turn their inventions into saleable products, honoring young inventors across the USA, developing national invention competitions, honoring teachers who overcome adversity for the sake of their students, providing guidelines for invention competitions, and holding science and language camps.

    Just before Erden's launch on his Pacific crossing, NMoE sent him two Hobo Data Loggers sponsored by the Onset Corporation. Erden programmed these to collect ambient temperature data for over 200 days, and installed one underwater at the tip of his rudder, another in a shady spot on deck. We will extract these water and air temperature data once he reaches Australia. Hopefully he programmed them correctly!

    WhaleNet is sponsored by the Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts. WhaleNet had its initial support from the National Science Foundation. It is an interactive, award-winning World Wide Web site that offers engaging hands-on activities, real-time satellite tracking data from whales, seals and dolphins, as well as years of right whale sighting data from both the feeding and calving areas.

    We were fortunate to learn that Professor J. Michael Williamson could readily receive the ARGOS tracking data from Erden's boat, and add this "two legged mammal" to the WhaleNet collection. We all hope that Erden will spot a great number of wildlife species on his Pacific crossing.

    The primary goals of WhaleNet's worldwide staff are: facilitating and coordinating learning in a variety of fields; enhancing general interest in science; developing problem-solving and other critical-thinking skills; and increasing environmental awareness. Educators also use WhaleNet's vast resources to enhance curricula in science, geography, math, reading, writing, environmental science, and of course, computers.

    WhaleNet offers exciting scientific discoveries while combining the best in education, environmental awareness, and technology. At WhaleNet, researchers share their personal experiences about studying whales. Individually and in classroom groups, their online visitors send, receive and share scientific data. Millions of people around the world share a unique glimpse inside the daily lives of marine scientists and the creatures they study. During the school year WhaleNet receives over 1 million hits per month. In 2006, the total hits exceeded 16 million, with a steadily rising trend.

    WhaleNet is used by people who study the marine environment, and by non-scientists who want to experience the excitement of a whale research. By combining a dynamic team of scientists and organizations with the latest whale research data, WhaleNet provides a global source of accessible information and allows for exciting interaction between students, teachers and researchers.

    Northwest Invention Center (NWIC) based in Redmond, Washington is led by Ed Sobey. NWIC is driving the effort to extend our educational effort into the university environment. Ed is a global evangelist for creative learning. He gives workshops and travels museum exhibits to Europe, Asia, North America and the Caribbean on how to engage students in learning through invention and innovation. Ed holds a Ph.D. in oceanography and until recently chaired the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Explorers Club.

    How can you help?

    Contacting NMoE directly will unlock many opportunities to support our collaborative educational programs. National Museum of Education, WhaleNet, Northwest Invention Center and Around-n-Over will welcome your talents, participation, sponsorships, donations and/or in-kind contributions.

    If you are a potential sponsor to support our educational effort, or if you are an educator willing to engage your school or classroom with our programs or to share your expertise, please contact NMoE soonest!!!

    We may have the opportunity to tap into a pool of talent which resides among you: the educators. An educator who prepares a specific lesson plan for a given age group could pass it on. When we travel in South America, Inca's would be relevant. When crossing the South Pacific, Captain Cook, settlement of Polynesian islands, ocean currents, trade winds can all be relevant topics. We can sort these by topic and by age group, piecing the puzzle over time. To the left, please find a resource that can be useful in curriculum development: Teaching for Understanding with Technology (Wiske, Rennebohm Franz, and Breit, 2004)

    Over time, as we find the resources, we will aim to create a more collaborative environment for teachers and students.

    It is our goal also to share the journey with your students in person. Erden does not charge for his school visits. To arrange for school visits by Erden when he is not on the journey, please contact us. If you are within driving distance from Seattle, we will be happily available. If you are located farther away, please make arrangements to cover the travel costs. Arranging for donations of Frequent Flier Miles and helping in accommodations during a visit are great ways to help us reach your community in person.

    Previous Educational Effort

    Following the journey to Denali in 2003, as part of our educational mission, we have visited many schools ranging from Kindergarten to High School. Our presentations of the journey covered goal setting, achieving dreams, overcoming obstacles, as well as career choices, technology applications to the Six Summits Project and entrepreneurial aspects of Around-n-Over. In our effort to support Leave No Trace, we were able to invite an LNT Master Educator to help on occasion to empower the students to become better stewards of their environment.

    During his ride from Seattle to Miami in the fall of 2004, Erden visited schools in the communities along the way. Please see our calendar for our future activities.

    We will continue to use this multi year, self propelled, human powered journey around the world as the foundation for our content prepared for education and inspiration. This effort will expand to include schools in other countries, who will have a common experience in following the journey, and who will learn about each other.

    We will take everyone along on our journeys, however vicariously, turning the same journeys into opportunities to learn, to enjoy and to allow one's self to be captivated.

    Leave No Trace Program

    Around-n-Over supports Leave No Trace organization, which is a non-profit based out of Boulder, Colorado. In all that we do however large the scale, we subscribe to the seven LNT principles. We want to inspire your students to live healthy lives, exercise, savor the outdoors, and at the same time to empower them by teaching the basics:

    1. Plan Ahead and Prepare
    2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
    3. Dispose of Waste Properly
    4. Leave What You Find
    5. Minimize Campfire Impacts
    6. Respect Wildlife
    7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors
    We have a certified Leave No Trace Master Educator available in Danelle Cartun who can train your students on these principles. Please contact us to arrange a school visit. Our LNT program will continue independently of Erden's journey around the world, and in tandem when Erden is available for visits.


    Around-n-Over, P.O. Box 19662, Seattle, WA 98109-6662 • Fax: 206-709-3927 • info@around-n-over.org
    Web site design by Erden Eruç • Copyright © 2003 Around-n-Over • All Rights Reserved.