Maritime History Course Brings About a 'Sea' Change in Traditional Learning

What better way to show off what you’ve learned in your Maritime History course than to build a boat and take to the seas? Of course the “sea” in this case was the pool at the Beckerman Athletic Center.

Three projects created for Tom Iampietro’s Maritime History course involved boat making – one constructed in Hamden Hall’s new MakerSpace Design Lab under the tutelage of science teacher David Bennett. Seniors Sean Morrissey and Matt Murchison built a 4-by-8 foot flat bottom Jon Boat out of plywood that was sealed with primer and painted with oil-based paint.

The vessel proved sea-worthy as it was launched in the pool with a crowd of bystanders cheering on the maiden voyage. A couple of lanes over, seniors Nick Annatone and Nick Cannon stepped gingerly into their full-size canoe that took them and a friend 200 hours to build.

With both crafts holding their own in the water, a friendly race ensued as William Rhone swam around in the deep end of the pool with his Fiji outrigger canoe.

Students – all seniors – in the class were charged with displaying their knowledge in a more non-conventional manner than say the obligatory composition book for the semester-ending project. None disappointed.

“Maritime History was designed with a number of goals, one of them being experiential in nature. This means the students are encouraged to give evidence of their learning in non-traditional ways,” explained Mr. Iampietro.

Mr. Iampietro’s challenge manifested in offerings that included a large collage and presentation on RMS Titanic, a videotaped interview with a sailor on America's final evacuation from Vietnam, and a performance of Percy Whitlock's Plymouth Suite on a church pipe organ.

Senior Gabe Simerson invited his classmates to St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New Haven for his presentation on how themes of the sea are represented in classical music. Besides many hours of practice on the pipe organ, Gabe spoke with members of Yale's music department to prepare.

In addition to the culminating project, Maritime History students over the years have certainly stepped outside of the traditional classroom to enhance their learning including opportunities to taste salted cod, instruction on knots and splicing, and a visit to a modern U.S. attack submarine (the USS Springfield) in Connecticut's Groton naval base. One part of the course is an annual visit to Mystic Seaport, where students see and touch the tools of whaling and ship building in the 19th century.