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SciSail

Step aboard our floating classroom, the 65 ft Sailing Research Vessel the Derek M.Baylis for a fun filled day of discovery with the Sail 4 Science program.
Our naturalist/educators help you formulate your own theories about the good, the bad and the ugly indicators of water quality, bio-diversity and marine health. The Sail 4 Science program is structured to pair students and their teachers with ongoing research projects, providing an opportunity to experience the process and purpose of the scientific method and to collect, study and record data in a fun and engaging way. Questions like “What methods are used to determine the health of the Bay" to "pound for pound what may well be the fastest creatures on the planet"? Whatever you or your students' minds can conjure up (within the parameters of biology) can be discovered onboard!

Standard program: In this program, the teacher’s or client’s representative choose which stations are to be used, and our trained crew are the educators during the sail. The participants are divided into groups and assigned to stations. They develop research questions and survey methods with guidance from the instructor. All activities are participant driven, as this tends to be a source of motivation for the participants.

Build your own program: The standard program above has brought much success to fulfill our mission of introducing people to the marine sciences. However, if a school has a field-specific goal that needs to be achieved during the sail, we work with the teacher or other client representative to formulate a lesson plan. The teacher, client representative or our educators can lead the activities at the stations during the sail. If the preference is for our educators to lead, we need the lesson plan to be submitted a minimum of two weeks prior to the boarding date.

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A typical Sail 4 Science day on the water

Below is an example itinerary and a brief description of some of the Stations in this program used for a 3 - 5 hour curriculum under sail on the bay, from the loading port to Paradise Cove, around Angel Island to Kirby Cove, along the city front and back to the Loading Port. We can board the group at one of several locations in the Bay Area.


09:45 - Boarding and Safety talk - introduction to the day.
10:00 - Underway - define groups and assign stations
10:30 - Station education begins en route to Paradise Cove, rotating roughly every 50 min
11:15 - Round Angel Island or sail past the Sausalito waterfront
11:40 - Stop in Kirby Cove 12:20 - Lunchtime
12:40 - Sail along the SF waterfront 13:40 - Full group discussion about items learned and experienced
13:50 - Closing - Disembark

CLick on the button below to select the scientific fields you want us to incorperate in your charter

The route map below depicts boarding in Richmond but we can also board in San Francisco, Sausalito, Berkeley, South SF, and South Bay.

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