Last week, fourth graders visited the Hyde Street Pier and climbed aboard Eureka, a ferry boat, and CA Thayer, a schooner, to experience what early explorers must have felt like traveling long journeys on a boat. “Students have been studying explorers as part of our social studies unit,” says teacher Kate Callan. “It’s hard to understand what it must have been like for an explorer who traveled for months on a boat, so this experience gave our students a little taste of what it might have felt like.” In addition to being on the boats, students went to the visitors’ center, where they saw an exhibit about how different groups of people—everyone from indigenous peoples to modern-day inhabitants—have used boats in the San Francisco Bay.

 

“This experience of being an explorer is not one students can easily tap into or relate to because that life is so different from what they experience today. To be able to feel what it’s like to be on a boat, see the skills needed to survive on a boat, and better understand the risk these explorers were taking allows students to appreciate and connect with their learning in a different way.” MORE PHOTOS