The heart of our students' educational experience on board the Half Moon lies in the various scientific topics they study in the field as we progress up the Hudson River. The educational crew designs these studies to enable students to observe, measure, and analyze natural patterns in the world around them. We stick to basic methods of gathering data, using devices that help the student gain insight about the workings of the world (as opposed to just reading an LED from a digital probe). Students also use primary source documents from the 17th century as well as collecting their own source data to generate their own primary source documents.
We continue to explore new avenues of teaching on the Half Moon. On this leg of the Voyage of Discovery, the hectic schedule of NY400 Weel occupied most of the students' time on board; this prevented us from conveniently scheduling our standard 24-hour data collection layover. The senior crew educators debated how to work around this limitation while still allowing the students to perform a full presentation project.
In the end, they determined that the entire student crew would make the most of their available time by collaborating on a single mechanical advantage experiment. The students would be divided into two teams (Port Watch and Starboard Watch), with each team independently analyzing the data they would collect. The experiment was conducted on Day Six with final presentations on Day Seven, including an oral report and written graphs.
We'll present the students' work in three stages:
Stage One: Orientation. The students are divided according to their watches and introduced to the principles of mechanical advantage.
Stage Two: Data Collection. The students rig a simple machine on the orlop deck, using it to measure the force and input distance needed to raise a set weight using one to four leads.
Stage Three: Presentation. On their last night on board the Half Moon, our student crews culminate their educational experience by delivering their team-based reports on the the scientific properties of mechanical advantage.
