The sea is their classroom

On a cool, overcast morning last Thursday, fourth-grade students from Hugh Cole Elementary School were bursting with excitement as they clamored back onto the dock following their first boat trip of the school year, led by certified instructors at the Herreshoff Marine Museum, out on Narragansett Bay.

“I didn’t want to come back at first,” said fourth-grader Mireille Chidester. “It was so fun.”

She joins the rest of the fourth-grade class across the Bristol Warren Regional School District in the town’s efforts to combine science and education with the art and craft of sailing through the first-ever Sail Bristol Warren initiative.

For six weeks this fall and again in the spring, roughly 250 fourth-grade students will spend two hours once a week at the Herreshoff Museum, where their teachers will collaborate with museum instructors to apply the lessons they’re learning in the classroom with real-world examples brought to life by sailing.

The children from Hugh Cole Elementary didn’t just talk about wave concepts during their time at the Herreshoff last week; they experienced it firsthand during their time out on the water.

“Sail Bristol Warren is a perfect example of how students can achieve rigorous grade level standards through experiential learning that takes place beyond the classroom walls,” said Assistant Superintendent Diane Sanna.

To prep for the new curriculum, fourth-grade teachers spent time over the summer observing the Sail Newport program as they developed their lessons plans, with some additionally taking advantage of the sailing classes that Herreshoff had offered.

Educators are hoping the fourth-graders absorb not only the complex scientific concepts, but also a sense of the historic impact of sailing in this region.

“It’s a good foundation to build on and see what more we can do,” Ms. Sanna said.

It’s also been an opportunity to connect with the local resources readily available in both Bristol and Warren. Along with the help of the Herreshoff, Sail Bristol Warren has partnered with Roger Williams University, who in the spring will guide students through the Kid Wind project as they build wind turbine models. After the full twelve weeks, fourth-graders will have a deeper awareness of the multiple ways they can apply their education in different professional settings.

As a result, Ms. Sanna hopes that as the students age, they’ll have more of an interest in the boat building clubs and engineering courses available at both the middle and high school levels.

For now, though, teachers are simply enjoying seeing their students so excited to learn. Children who were shy in the classroom are suddenly exuding confidence out on the water as they learn to work as a team and build up their own self-esteems.

“The kids are really engaged in it. They don’t get to experience this on a normal basis,” said Lynn DellaGrotta, a fourth-grade teacher at Hugh Cole.

As her students document their learning in their reflection journals, Ms. DellaGrotta is curious to see how well they’ll be able to connect similar concepts moving forward. At the end of the six weeks, she’ll join the rest of the instructors as they discuss what went well, and what they can do differently for next year. Already, Ms. Sanna would like to incorporate an even more robust look at the Herreshoff’s historical importance in Bristol as part of the future curriculum. At some point, she’d love for students of all grade levels to have a similar experiential learning experience available to them.

“It’s one step at a time,” Ms. Sanna said.

Sail Bristol Warren is a grant-funded program made possible through partnerships with the Herreshoff Marine Museum, Roger Williams University, Real Jobs RI and the Rhode Island Marine Trades Association.