Programs Blog

Nadya Babushkin, Gabby Mccalpin and Alice Crawford-Muscat, Skyline HS, New York Harbor School and Amherst Regional HS

This blog post is the first for Class C-297B (Session 2), Science at SEA, which is now on campus and which will join the SSV Corwith Cramer on July 22nd.

Upon arrival at campus, we gathered together to play card games,do watercolors, and chat. Once everyone was settled in, we went over chore rotations and then  headed to orientation. For dinner we enjoyed burgers, hot dogs, chips, and a hearty salad. After the meal, academic course overviews were followed by a bonfire, s’mores, and team building activities before heading to bed.

Our first full day at SEA was met with a windy welcome from Elsa! We stayed put in our cozy cabins for breakfast and daily housekeeping as we connected with our roommates. Today was everyone’s first day of classes at the Madden. Nautical Science was led by Sean Bercaw, where we learned to tie square knots and a brief rundown of ship rules, and what is to come for us later in the next coming weeks. A transition into the next class, Oceans and Society, taught by Ben Kochan, we reviewed a short excerpt from Rachel Carson’s best-selling book, “The Edge of the Sea”. From there we began one-on-one interviews with each other to understand why we’re all here, and what drives us to learn about the oceans.

Staying in the Madden for lunch, we played chess, checkers, music, and cards. Lunch was over at 2:15, where it was time to begin Oceanography with Heather Page. Dipping our toes into plate tectonics and the sea mounts and floor, we viewed and took notes on the NOAA submarine in the gulf of Maine.

After looking at deep-sea sponges and stars, it was decided for free time we would play kickball! Oh yeahhh. We took a break from kickball to get our dinner of peanut chicken and tofu. It was right back into kickball on the field overlooked by the Madden, and the evening sky.

Everyone’s excited to get on the ship, but having fun keeping busy with classes and activities until then!

– Nadya Babushkin, Skyline High School
– Gabby Mccalpin, New York Harbor School
– Alice Crawford-Muscat, Amherst Regional High School