Calendar of Events

OceansWide Mini-Camps:
Welcome back to OceansWide. This year we have expanded our camps to five days. There will be classroom lessons and pool sessions at the Boothbay Regional YMCA, outings to the Darling Marine Center with ship and ROV excursions just offshore. Camps will offer students a chance to learn all about remotely operated vehicles. There will be a session to teach them how to build and operate a ROV after which we will survey the ocean's mid water and the sea floor. During their time on board our Ocean Campers will search the abyss for creatures that have inhabited these waters for millions of years. We will explore the depths searching for scallops and conks, cod fish and sharks, halibut, lobsters and maybe even some whales! We will see a cornucopia of "critters" on our way down and still more once we reach our final destination at the bottom of the sea.

The Ocean Campers will explore the Darling Marine Center and travel along on an ocean naturalist cruise where they will have an opportunity to be tutored on vessel handling. We are very pleased to offer this adventure to our community and hope you will join us.

Dates:
Summer camps will be offered from July 7th through August 11th.

Some financial sponsorship will be available. It is our desire to ensure that all who want to participants may do so do so. If you have questions write to info@oceanswide.org

Please download our Registration form (PDF)

OceansWide Summer Seminar Series:
Summer 2008 is shaping up to be an exciting time for us at OceansWide and we hope you will join us. This year's seminar series entitled "Adventures and Perils of the Ocean" will tell stories about ships that traveled the New England coast, Antarctica and the Arctic waters and the men and women who risked their lives at sea. We will learn about some of the voyages that never reached their destinations and what happened to the ships and lives of those lost so many years ago. Join us for "Adventures and Perils of the Ocean" at the Damariscotta Skidompha Public Library on Main Street in Damariscotta, Maine.

Times and details will be available at a later date.

OceansWide Summer Workshops and Open Houses:
These events will give an overview of the ship and it's various educational components.

Including our 5 learning stations around the vessel:

STATION:

1. The Bridge and Shipboard Operations: Students will have an opportunity to learn shipboard safety (our number one concern), navigation, ship handling and will gain knowledge of the ships electronics and communication systems. Operations will be an opportunity for students to learn about the intricacies of operating a research vessel. They will observe and participate in the launch and recovery of the ROV and other scientific equipment. Students will be mentored by the ships crew and engineering staff learning the day to day functions of the ship.
2. The ROV Control and Engineering: Here the students have an opportunity to learn details of flying a remotely operated unmanned submarine. Skills from the bridge station will be reinforced here, but with a twist. They will fly the submarine and help accomplish the day's scientific objectives with the science party. After the days mission when the ROV is safely back on board students will help with post-dive maintenance and specimen/data retrieval from the sampling devices on board the ROV
3. The Ship's Science Lab: Students and scientists will collect samples from the ocean during a morning dive and will study these samples in the on board science labs. While the lab based studies and ROV research and collections are conducted the students will be mentored by the science party and will intern with the scientists as they learn about the methodology of scientific research. Here students will be able to describe known species and events. Students will at times even have the opportunity to contribute to the study, capture and description of some unknown deep sea creatures.
4. The Ship's Media Center (the Arts): This unique part of the program will allow full documentation of every detail of life onboard the vessel. Students will work with several staff members to collect film and photographic documentation. Student writers will keep journals, write stories, interview fellow ship riders and create publicity which can be used ashore in yearbooks, magazines, newspapers, websites, radio and television. Finally, the students will be given an opportunity to learn the art of illustration. They will sketch, draw, paint, digitize and computerize the sights seen during their time on the OceansWide ship.
5. History, Archaeology and Culture: Here students may find themselves swept into Maine's past when adventure and everyday life were one in the same. We will search the sea floor with archaeologists from the National Marine Sanctuaries, NOAA and with independent wreck hunters to find vessels who met their unfortunate demise at the bottom of the sea. Rumors have it that the Gulf of Maine is littered with the skeletons of sunken ships from the mid 1800's, but that's not all there are WWII vintage bombers and fighters and even the occasional American submarines and German U-boats. These vessels are special resting places with stories to tell. We will respectfully document the wrecks and try to work through the clues to discover the reason these mammoth vessels met their end. History will be an integral part of the OceansWide program. The rich maritime history of Maine will be self evident once the lights of the ROV light up the first vessel lying in the silent dark depths of the Gulf of Maine. Like treasure hunting, sunken ships just have a way of arousing our interest.

While at these workshops, one may enroll any 8 to 14 year old for one of our unique summer camps (space is limited so sign up early).

These summer programs are exclusively provided to the community through the kindness of individual donors. Your support and generosity are greatly appreciated.

We look forward to hearing from you and having you sail with us during the summer of 2008!