We are contacting schools across the United Kingdom to ask them if they would like to be involved with our challenge. We believe that there are many aspects surrounding the row that schools would be able to utilise to inspire their students and raise interest in certain topics, such as geography, meteorology, oceanography, marine conservation etc.
We will have four cameras on board that will enable us to live stream video footage as we row across the Indian Ocean. We hope that by being able to follow us through this “big brother” type medium, students will engage with the project as a whole.
The camera system will also allow us to hold video calls through the interactive learning platform Learn Live. We will be connecting with different schools across the country every day of the week during term time, hopefully during an assembly where a large amount of students could be in attendance, and some of them will be able to talk to us live and pose questions about any subject that they want surrounding the row.
The four man rowing boat will also be fitted with a tracker and our progress across the Indian Ocean can be followed on a free app, with our positions being updated every four hours from the start, right up until land is touched in Port Louis in Mauritius.
Get the app (coming soon)
We are also looking to try and encourage healthy living through exercise and nutrition. Whilst we are all rowing as part of a fours crew, one member, Robin, was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 43. Exercise and nutrition can be fantastic tools to help delay the onset of symptoms that people living with YOPD experience. However, we all know that everybody benefits from regular exercise and we hope to be able to get this message across to pupils in school.
We do not expect anything from participating schools. All you need to do is sign up to the learn live website (which is a free service). If any school would like to hold a fundraising event in support of the charity we are raising money for, we would of course appreciate that, but the schools participation in Indian Ocean 2018 is not reliant on this.
Schools that sign up will also receive a monthly newsletter in the run up to the event detailing how, and what, we are doing to make it to the start line in the best possible position to enable us to complete this epic voyage!
