Port-as-Classroom
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Middle School Curriculum
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The Port-as-Classroom project team developed a large number of port- related activities for incorporation in the general classroom settings of each school. These are curriculum- based and are designed to complement instruction in the sciences, mathematics, social studies, and linguistic arts at each grade level in the middle schools. Teachers are provided with specific guides and with offers of assistance if needed or requested.
Week One began with an orientation explaining the key goals of the program: 1st to experience the port, 2nd to learn from those experiences, 3rd to express learning in well-written narratives and 4th to employ the narratives to inform others of the port experience. It then continued with discussions of the history and evolution of the modern global merchant marine, the significance of "flags of convenience", the ethnic and cultural characteristics of the men and women of the global merchant fleet and its implications, the characteristics and problems of seafarers entering the Port of Brunswick, the nature of modern merchant vessels – specialized types of ships – and the difficulty of "living within a machine" over extended periods at sea. The sessions concluded with opportunities for open-ended questioning and discussion.
Field trip to tour the Port of Brunswick and a ship
Week Two focused on the art of the interview. We especially stressed the careful preparation for an interview through research and development of effective questions within a flexible frame work, initiating an interview, conducting the interview, and effectively ending the interview process. Of special importance, since many seafarers speak English only as a second language and often with limited facility, was the understanding of non-verbal forms of communication such as "body language". The need to employ varied forms of questioning was emphasized as well as making interviews an exchange of ideas rather than an interrogation. Students were taught to afford the person interviewed an opportunity for feedback and elaboration. The instruction included opportunities for practicing interview skills and conducting face-to-face interviews with resident mariners and others with limited command of English.
Week Three was based upon a text: Margaret R. MacDonald's, The Storytellers Start-up Book. The instructor discussed the planning and skills needed to translate experience into effective narrative. Teaching included the uses of stories to instruct and inform as well as the need to structure stories for particular audiences with varied levels of understanding and information. Finally, students were given a booklet of Seafarers' Profiles as well as accounts culled from the Oral History archives of the International Seafarers' Center. Based on these profiles and accounts, students constructed their own original narratives as if they had been the interviewers of seafarers in the Oral History Collection.
Week Four was devoted to the reading and critique of the students' stories. Each student received a written commentary showing both the strengths and weaknesses of his or her story and was asked to rewrite in light of these criticisms. Rewritten stories were submitted to the Port-as- Classroom Project instructor for incorporation into a collection that will include not only stories based upon the Oral History sources but also direct interviews with seafarers at sea and in port. The story collection will be published for dissemination to schools and community groups.
Elementary School Curriculum
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The key concept of this project was to involve third through sixth graders in a broad look at the industry and economics of the port, seafaring life, and basic navigation.
Part One began with an overview covering topics such as make up a ship, officer and crew ranking, use of signal flags, and flags of convenience.
Part Two introduced the students to the port through participation of a tour of our port and a tour of a ship.
Part Three focused on navigation – past and present. Topics included navigational terms (map, grid, coordinates, latitude/longitude), how ships navigate, routes of travel by ships that come into Brunswick, how to use navigational aids; compass, map, sextant, and GPS as well as the use of buoys and lighthouses as navigational aids. Each student was given a compass to keep.
Part Four highlighted the activities of our port. Topics such as role of harbor/bar pilot, impact of port on BWK's economy, logistics of loading/ unloading cargo, types of cargo; import/export and land transportation, role of various agencies: Homeland Security, Customs, Agriculture, and the role of International Seafarers' Center.
Part Five was devoted to life on board a ship. Topics included size/ diversity of crew, work duties, leisure time, food, medical care, green ships, detained crew members, stories from ship visitors, reading of exiting Seafarers' Profiles and accounts culled from the Oral History archives of the International Seafarers' Center.
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