The 48-foot vessel One Ocean set sail from Anacortes, WA on May 3, 2025, for the 14-month Around-the-Americas Expedition to benefit science and education. The team of scientists and educators will be sharing a continuous collection of data and research about protecting and restoring ocean biodiversity and raising awareness of the state of our ONE OCEAN. This Waggoner article highlights the educational aspects of the expedition, the 11th article in our series.
The Around the Americas Sailing Expedition offers a free-floating classroom for students to engage in interactive lessons on ocean research, technology, expedition planning, and story collections. The 5-person crew will document their journey through YouTube videos and live classes through the world-renowned online platform called “Exploring by The Seat of Your Pants.”
Live Classroom Resource. The crew of One Ocean will be documenting their journey for live classroom connections via the “Exploring by The Seat of Your Pants” online platform. Joe Grabowski, a science communicator, educator, and scuba diver, is the founder of this unique platform, which brings scientists, exploration, adventure, and conservation into classrooms across The Americas.
Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants hosts 4,500+ live lessons, connecting over a million and a half students to scientists and explorers from 113 countries. Through this immersive technology and visual storytelling platform, the Around the Americas crew will be able to host live lessons to classrooms globally. The goal is to inspire ocean stewards and highlight STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career pathways. ATA (Around the Americas) will use social media and their website for communicating the calendar for live classroom sessions.
Students and the public will be able to track sailing vessel One Ocean and keep updated with photos and videos of the expedition at www.oneislandoneocean.com
Student/Public Curriculum. Volunteers, Sarah Southard, Victor Garcia, and Project Director Jennifer Dalton have created a separate open-source curriculum for schools, researchers, and the public. Prerecorded lessons covering ocean research, technology, and bull and giant kelp-bed studies will be available via a direct link under “Education” on the Around-the-Americas One Ocean website at www.oneislandoneocean.com. You can also book an in-person presentation with the crew as available.
Contributors to the education curriculum shared by the Around the Americas Expedition include Sailors for the Sea Powered by Oceana, University of Washington Applied Physics Lab, Northwest Straits Foundation, Samish Dept. of Natural Resources, Blue Robotics, the Seattle Aquarium, and Skagit Valley College Marine Tech Center. Local Skagit volunteers, including Sarah Southard and Victor Garcia, have also contributed to the curriculum.
Education Tent. The team aboard One Ocean will be stopping at over 50 ports along their Around-the-Americas route to share ocean studies in local schools and at the docks in a portable classroom tent made by Skagit Valley College. Interactive activities will be available for students, including demonstrations of the crew’s ROV. Students who have made significant contributions in their community may be eligible for the “Ocean Steward Award,” see the One Ocean website for details.
Ocean Ambassador Schools. Crew members will deploy 10 SWIFT buoys from the vessel, One Ocean. These buoys measure waves, wind, turbulence, and ambient noise at the ocean surface. All buoys are open to all students globally to track for up to a month’s worth of data. The Around the Americas Expedition is offering a unique opportunity to highlight incredible ocean ambassador schools.
For a thousand dollars, you could have your child’s/grandchild’s school connected with a buoy. The crew will broadcast live and name the ocean ambassador schools when deploying a buoy. This will be shared in a live episode on Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants and shared on the One Ocean website and social media sites – #oneislandoneocean. Ocean Ambassador schools will have the opportunity to connect live with the crew.
Waggoner wishes the crew of One Ocean and students Around the Americas an exciting year of discovery and adventure. We extend our appreciation to Jennifer Dalton for providing information to include in this article.
Header Photo: “Seat of Your Pants”
and Crew of One Ocean
