Hope is afloat at Howe Hall AIMS as the SS AIMS InFINity keeps sailing around the world!
Creativity is the lifeblood of HHA and in February 2022 Maria Earl and Jennifer Dragotta cooked up an imaginative way to bring engineering into their classrooms. Working with Educational Passages, their classes, with help from students throughout the school, built a five-foot-long boat with a satellite transmitter to track its progress out at sea.
Not only is the experience of building the boat educational, but watching its journey teaches students about ocean currents and weather. The boat also has a cargo compartment where students housed a brochure about HHA and Charleston, so when the boat makes land the people who find it will get to learn about the Lowcountry and the school.
A stuffed chameleon was put in the cargo hold in honor of a former teacher of Howe Hall, Kathy Broughton, that passed in 2020, too.
HHA was able to start building the boat after Earl won a $5,000 grant from Santee Cooper. Plus, an extra $1,100 for additional sensors was approved by Principal Chris Swetckie.
Dragotta’s students began building the mini-boat using a workbook and kit from Educational Passages. Taking the lesson plans provided and infusing the arts, students in all grade levels helped to complete the boat by May of 2023.
“Different student teams were created and began to plan how to do everything from naming the boat, to attaching the keel, to its eventual launch,” Dragotta said. “Our art teacher, Brooke Irimescu, had students design the art that would cover the deck and sail of the boat, while our music teacher, Kathy Leibenow, created a sea shanty with students. It was an amazing cross-curricular and arts infused and integrated project.”
After months of building, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was enlisted to help launch the boat off one of its vessels.
Launched on June 8, the boat was retrieved five days later by Terry Labonte, a two-time NASCAR champion, off the coast of North Carolina during the Annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament. The boat was relaunched by Labonte on Friday, June 16.
Dragotta is thrilled it will continue on its journey.
“We’re so excited that our mini-boat is inspiring new community members and encouraging more people to help students make amazing real-world connections with the ocean,” Dragotta said. “We’ll continue following the SS AIMS InFINity’s next journey and begin the process of tracking it with students in the fall.”
