Youths get hands-on learning on a schooner sailing the Detroit River

Sprinkles of rain eased to a gentle breeze just hard enough to keep 11 Detroit youths on an educational vessel coasting down the Detroit River.

It's part of the third annual Detroit River Skiff & Schooner Program, hosted by the University of Michigan Detroit River Story Lab, which seeks to provide a hands-on educational foundation for Detroit youths about the rich historical, cultural, and environmental heritage surrounding the river.

By allowing students to see the river in a new light, they can connect their own lives back to the river, encouraging them to get involved in shaping Detroit’s future after knowing its past.

The gaff-rigged schooner, 77 feet wide and 65 feet tall, was built in 1994 for a specific purpose: to provide students with an “experiential place-based education."

“It’s what connects you (to the river): how am I a part of the water? And once you’re here, once you’re part of the water, you can’t pull yourself away,” said Rachel Ratliff, volunteer coordinator for the Inland Seas Education Association and lead educator.

This year’s program consists of 34 hands-on learning lab sessions run twice a day between Aug. 1-11 and Sept. 11-16. Each learning lab is taught aboard the schooner by experts on a broad range of topics surrounding the Detroit River.

This year is also the biggest year yet, featuring more student groups than ever before, said Bruce Ross, the president and CEO of Ross & Contemporaries, LLC., who helped connect the different youth groups to the program.

“We have to think outside the box and engage them with more hands-on stuff," Ross said. "The Detroit River is a classroom in and of itself. And a lot of kids have no idea that it’s a classroom, so we have to expose them.”

The Aug. 7 afternoon session was attended by a group new to the program: 11 students ages 11-15, along with their instructors from Accent Pontiac, a year-round in-school and after-school music program.

When the students arrived at Milliken State Park schooner docks, many eyed the tall historical ship nervously as it bobbed in the docks.

After a quick introduction from Ratcliff, everyone boarded the schooner. When they got comfortable, the ship’s crew made their assessments and sounded a horn to signal “all aboard” before pulling away from the dock.

As the schooner made its way through the waves, the learning labs quickly began.

The students were first taught how to use several nautical instruments to measure water and air temperature, wind direction and wind speed, and how to take water samples to be tested for plankton later.

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Then the students were taught how to hoist the sails on the two-mast ship. Under the instruction of Ratliff and other crew members, the students lined up on each side of the boat, grabbed hold of the ropes, and — when prompted by Ratliff — cheered “Let’s go sailing!”

The students pulled the ropes, shouting “Heave ho!” together between pulls — once again, as instructed by Ratliff — as the sails slowly unfolded upward.

After, the students were split up into small groups to better engage with each of the following stations as the experts told them stories and facts about the Detroit River.

Jill Egan, an ISEA volunteer instructor, explained the principles of buoyancy and heeling — when a sailboat leans to the side from the force of the wind — using a small model ship in a tub of water, and also let them take turns steering the schooner under the watch of the crew.

Natalie Cypher, an educator from the Michigan Department of Natural Resource’s Outdoor Adventure Center, talked about the resurgence of beavers and Great Lakes sturgeon due to restoration efforts, using beaver furs, skulls, and sturgeon stuffed animals to keep the kids attentive.

Irene Moore Davis, president of Essex County Black Historical Society in Windsor, Ontario, and descendant of a slave who escaped via the Underground Railroad, told stories explaining Detroit’s role as “Midnight” — the last stop on the Underground Railroad before slaves found freedom in Canada.

Jamon Jordan, the official city historian of Detroit, gave a brief history of Detroit from pre-colonial times and its foundation through present day, covering topics like how the city gained its population, how it gained recognition throughout the years, and how the culture came to be.

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Meghan Wysocki, a Great Lakes Waterways Education intern, took the students under the deck where a microscope and screen waited for students to look for plankton. The kids each made a slide with the earlier water sample then searched the screen for plankton as Wysocki shifted the slide under the microscope. When one was found, they tried to identify it using one of the many plankton flashcards provided on the table.

After the three hours aboard, the schooner sailed back to the docks near the Milliken State Park lighthouse, while the kids chattered about their favorite parts of the trip — hoisting the sail, steering the wheel, and finding the plankton in their water samples — and asked when they could come back.

“Whatever you’ve seen and heard today was the river’s gift to you," said Ratcliff. "I hope it was a nice one.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Youths get hands-on learning on a schooner sailing the Detroit River