Season 4 of the Educational Passages Podcast continues with our “Imagine This” series — where the stories behind our miniboats reveal something even deeper than ocean currents and GPS tracks.

Each episode invites you to step into a moment of possibility — to feel the anticipation, the uncertainty, and the extraordinary connections that unfold when students send something small into a very big ocean.

Now press play, close your eyes, and imagine this:

The Cape Cod Sea Turtle Project, where students, scientists, and community partners work together to understand how ocean currents impact cold-stunned sea turtles. Through the use of student-built miniboats and drifters, classrooms become part of real-world research—tracking movement, collecting data, and uncovering patterns in the ocean. This is a story of hands-on learning, collaboration, and discovery, showing how understanding the movement of water can help protect marine life and power the blue economy. 

Sources & More Info:

• Educational Passages Project: https://educationalpassages.org/capecodseaturtleproject/ 
• Mass Audubon Sea Turtle Project: https://www.massaudubon.org/places-to-explore/wildlife-sanctuaries/wellfleet-bay/projects/sea-turtles
• Studentdrifters.org 
• Page FM, Manning J, Howard L, Healey R, Karraker NE. 2023. Developing bottom drifters to better understand the stranding locations of cold-stunned sea turtles in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. PeerJ 11:e15866 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15866). 
• Cold Stunned Sea Turtles: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/cold-snaps-and-stunned-sea-turtles 
• More on Jim Manning's work: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/low-cost-technology-helps-connect-fishermen-and-students-science 

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Educational Passages is a non-profit organization that seeks to connect people around the world to the ocean and each other through unique global experiences.