TechBrick: November 12, 2008:
Lady Maryland Chesapeake Bay Research Trip

On Wed, November 12, twenty-one of our team members and 11 adults boarded the Lady Maryland, the flagship of the Living Classrooms Foundation in Baltimore, MD.

We left port and 9:30 am and returned at 1:30pm. And what an adventure it was.

It began with a stern safety talk and warning about giant sea monsters and the like. After donning our life preservers we headed out in the Chesapeake Bay.

The day started with raising of the sails followed by an extended discussion about run off and how it effects the bay.

We then cast a net to see what we could find. Trolling is allowed only for research purposes. We caught some very small fish, jellyfish, and a boot.

Then the teams split up into four stations and learned about water quality, life in the bay, oysters, the scrubbers of water masses, plankton, and crabs along with a thorough investigation of our catch.

The last challenge was building sea-worthy boats out tape, tin foil, and popsicle sticks.

We departed with the lowering of the sails and, wind-swept and tired kids, and a group who had just had a great adventure.

The Lady Maryland is a replica of a Chesapeake Bay pungy schooner, a boat which sailed the Bay in the 1800's. Pungies, which were considered fast sailing vessels in the 1800s, were primarily used as workboats which carried perishable cargo such as oysters, watermelons, tomatoes, fish, peaches, and grain.

Lady Maryland was built by the Living Classrooms Foundation in 1985. The Lady Maryland is made out of wood, principally from the trees of Maryland, such as White Oak and Pine. All the wood used to build this ship was donated by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Today, the Lady Maryland sails as part of the Living Classrooms Foundation's educational fleet, providing hands-on, multidisciplinary educational programs for students of all ages.

http://www.livingclassrooms.org