Programs & Priorities: Field Trips & Learning

Creating future stewards of Lake Champlain.

Floating Classrooms engage local students in lake ecology and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education through keelboat sailing and hands-on lessons. Out on Lake Champlain students grow, face challenges, and nurture a relationship with the natural world. Through a combination of standards-based curriculum and experiential learning, Floating Classrooms uses sailing as a medium to meet the needs of local schools and their students.

This program uses locally relevant science curriculum and experiential learning to engage Vermont students in STEM education using Lake Champlain as a platform for discovery and learning, and sailing as a medium to deliver each lesson. Students learn on shore and lessons are enhanced while sailing on Lake Champlain aboard our keelboats. CSC educators visit the classroom in the winter, creating a full year program for students. The Floating Classrooms lessons are geared toward 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students.

3rd, 4th and 5th grade initiative: Classrooms participating in this program visit the sailing center three times, once per season. In the early fall and late spring, students sail. The winter lesson provides a bridge between the fall and spring lessons, connecting concepts and instilling confidence and ownership in students.

Program Topics: Programs are available for students of all ages. Topics we can accommodate include, but are not limited to: Water Quality, Local Watershed, Geologic History, Marine Debris, Physics of Sailing, Wind, Weather, Climate, Community Engagement, and Teamwork.

Programs are available from late-April to mid-October. Fall programs can sail or paddle. Spring programs are limited to sailing.

All programs align with Next Generation Science and Common Core Standards.

If you have questions, please contact Program Director, John Nagle, at john@communitysailingcenter.org or (802) 864-2499.

But first...

Each participant will need to have a waiver signed by a parent or guardian to participate.

Afterschool education

For youth groups looking to visit the CSC for an educational field trip, please contact Program Director, John Nagle, at john@communitysailingcenter.org or (802) 864-2499.