Class study on sailboat race earns high marks from students
The Volvo Ocean Race, an international sailing competition, has become an exciting subject of study for seventh and eighth grade students at Lawn Middle School. Team teachers Nick Alfred, math, Kristen DeSantis and Dawn Huff, language arts and reading, Jim Kaczynski, science, Maureen McGuirl, history, and Michaela Onosko, Spanish, combined resources to present a weeklong interdisciplinary learning unit focused on the race.
The team was first approached by the director of Sail Newport, Brad Read, whose brother Ken is participating in the race as skipper of the Puma racing team. He had a race-based curriculum already being used in two private schools in Newport and Lawn school teachers agreed to a utilize a modified racebased curriculum for Jamestown's seventh and eighth graders. According to the team teachers, the Puma boat is based in Newport and has many local connections, including the boat being
