Celebrating Impacts Through Stories and Data: 2024-2025

Annual Summary of Float Your Boat Program Impact

The Float Your Boat program continues its mission of connecting people to the Arctic Ocean, operating as an outreach initiative of the International Arctic Buoy Programme. Over the May 1, 2024, to April 30, 2025, period, the program demonstrated significant growth and impact in fostering Arctic awareness and STEM engagement.

I. Program Reach and Participation The program's reach extended broadly, engaging a diverse range of formal and non-formal learners across multiple states and internationally.

• Schools and Students: The program engaged 36 K-12 schools and 3,539 K-12 learners during this period. A wide range of grade levels participated, from PreK through college, including student teachers.

• Educators: 47 formal and non-formal educators integrated the program into their teaching. Many of these were recognized Polar Educators, Polar STEAM Educators, or National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellows.

• Non-formal Organizations: The program also engaged 7 non-formal organizations, including museums, passenger ships, and science vessels, reaching 496 participants such as visitors, families, and scientists on-board.

• Total Learners: Cumulatively, the program reached a total of 4,085 learners.

• Geographic Footprint: Participating locations included states like Alaska, Iowa, Washington, Alabama, Wisconsin, Colorado, New Mexico, California, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and North Carolina, as well as international sites in Canada, Italy, and Sweden.

  
  

II. Educational Impact and Engagement The Float Your Boat program provided hands-on, engaging, and interdisciplinary learning experiences:

• Hands-on Learning: Students actively participated in designing, building (with 1,352 boats from schools and 121 school-made boats reported, alongside 421 from non-formal organizations), and tracking wooden boats. This process reinforces concepts in buoyancy, engineering design, and properties of materials.

• Deep Engagement: Students dedicated an average of 13.5 hours of learning per student, contributing to approximately 47,776.5 total hours of Arctic learning. This deep engagement is reflected in feedback such as students being so excited and talked about it all year, and it being one of my students' favorite activities over the last two years.

• Curriculum Integration: The program seamlessly integrates into various subjects, including science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). Educators found it an awesome teaching tool that fits perfectly with units on ocean circulation, climate change, sea ice, and ecosystems. It also provided meaningful lessons that personal connections to the world around them.

• Arctic and Climate Change Awareness: The boats serve as a tangible tool for teaching critical environmental concepts. Students were made aware, thanks to our boats, about climate change. It helped students understand the impacts of climate change and ocean currents and how arctic regions directly impact coastal California (among other regions). The program also facilitated discussions on how the earth is changing, including the rapid melting of sea ice.

• Real-world Connections & Citizen Science: The program provides a powerful layer of citizen science connection to investigations into climate change and seasonal sea ice dynamics. It enables students to predict boat movements based on polar currents and past deployments. The discovery of found boats by members of the public, like those reported from Iceland and Norway, further highlights this real-world impact and community engagement.

  
  

III. Educator and Community Feedback Educators consistently praised the program for its effectiveness and impact:

• Motivating and Engaging: Teachers described it as a cool opportunity and expressed that students "thrive on these types of opportunities".

• Empowering Students: For schools in rural areas or low-income communities, the program helps students know how big our world is and how many cool things there are to learn and motivates them to pursue STEM careers.

• Positive Reinforcement: Many educators are super fans and appreciate the program as powerful work that is shared widely within their networks.

  
  

IV. Digital Presence and Outreach The program actively maintains an online presence to support its mission and expand its reach:

• Website and Social Media: The website (floatboat.org) recorded 12,718 page views and 6,821 sessions, attracting 4,576 unique visitors. The Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/floatboat.org) saw a reach of 19,375 and grew to 509 followers.

• Content and Resources: 58 blogs were written and posted, and 145 new subscribers joined. The website provides extensive teaching tools, including Polar Literacy Principles and various lesson plans on Arctic Ocean circulation, sea ice, and climate change.

• Media Coverage: The program was featured in 9 external news/blog articles.

It's now time to apply to participate in the Float Your Boat Program for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year. Complete the application by September 2nd.