Our primary goal on this Half Moon voyage is not to travel to any given destination, nor even to have our students prepare a scientific presentation for the rest of our crew. Instead, our goal is to shoot a video pilot that will beam a virtual Half Moon Voyage of Discovery into classrooms across the country. We have few resources to fall back on, but we can count on the immense well of talent and enthusiasm our student and senior crew brings to the project. Not to mention the biggest star on set: the Half Moon itself, which boasts an impressive Hollywood résumé!

Half Moon Discoveries (a proposed working title) is envisioned as an interactive video series using peer-based educational techniques to teach students the same scientific principles our student crew members study during their Voyages of Discovery. In each segment, the students on board the Half Moon are presented with a problem -- measuring water salinity or tracking tidal height, for example -- and they need the students in the classroom to analyze their data and discover the solution.

Over the course of this week we'll shoot a pilot video, which the New Netherland Museum can then use to seek funding to launch the program on a grander scale. This has long been a dream project for Captain Reynolds, who continually seeks new ways to place the Half Moon's educational resources within reach of students far beyond the Three Rivers of New Netherland.