By Sarah “Spindrift” Warren, Assistant Sailing Director

During the past year of virtual learning, we’ve been able to help students connect with and experience their natural community, the science in the world around them, and to the water. Since rolling out our live, educator-led online experiential classes, we’ve had so much fun exploring the engineering process with hundreds of students. An unexpected and exciting new benefit of these lessons is being able to connect, teach, and learn from students of all different backgrounds in a way more accessible than ever before. One of the best parts of being a NESS educator is being able to watch our students get creative and try something new within their learning process. Through our virtual programs, students explore innovating topics like sailboat mechanics, underwater ROVs, ocean currents, and watersheds just to name a few! Moving through the course synchronously with students, we have worked hard to create a space that fosters learning with our educators as the lead.

Now we want to give students the opportunity to take the lead! As educators, we understand that students need to learn at their own pace, on their own path. We’ve been working on building an asynchronous course, where our educators set the learning path that students and teachers can access independently. With demonstrations and videos of our educators throughout the course as a guide, and checkpoints to reflect and strengthen understanding, your student can move through the course on their own.

Our first course is all about sailing! Students experiment with physics and engineering, use examples from everyday life, and explore the technology behind the hydrofoiling sailboats featured in the America’s Cup. We are now able to bring the awesomeness and science from the pinnacle of competitive sailing, The America’s Cup, to our studnets in partnership with the American Magic Team and Quantum Racing. Creating designs based on studying and observing some of the fastest, most efficient boats in the world, students jump into the high-tech world of sailing and American Magic’s hydrofoiling AC75. By focusing on the science behind sailing, students are able to access a new world of sailing, from wherever they are, and answer the question – how and why do sailboats move?

We hope you will join us online soon!