Inaugural Canadian Teaching With Small Boats Alliance

Small Boat Alliance

 

Nov 22, 2018

Dr. Shane Thieunissen sent us this wrap-up of this enjoyable and very well run event.

The Inaugural Canadian TWSBA was held on Nov. 03, 2018 in the Small Craft Gallery of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. This gathering was an excellent opportunity for people who share a love of boats and the sea to come together to foster community, and share knowledge and skills. We had good coffee, snacks, and chilli in the boat shed. We even found some time to builds the basic structures of two Bevin’s Skiffs.

The guest talks were held in the Small Craft Gallery at the Museum. This is a wonderful airy space filled with boats, and their sails. It presented the perfect backdrop to our event.

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A special thank you to our speakers:

Irene Endicott (principal of Pictou Landing First Nation School) who spoke about her experiences partnering with the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, and Mount Saint Vincent University in a Bevin’s skiff boat building workshop:

{videobox}https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EsIdJwNDKY{/videobox}

We were also very fortunate to have Dr. Boris Worm (Killam Research Professor in Marine Conservation at Dalhousie University) who introduced the group to his amazing initiative to bring embedded and immersive experiences of the ocean to people through digital media through the Ocean School

Small Boat Alliance 4Crane Stookey (the founder of the Nova Scotia Sea School) incorporated innovative activities to his presentation that propelled us to a greater appreciation of experiential learning, and teaching, cooperation, and the outward gaze: https://www.seaschool.org/

Dr. Steve Mannell (Director of the College of Sustainability at Dalhousie University) gave an engaging talk on Boatbuilding as a Tool for Studying Cultural Heritage. He introduced us to the concepts of the dory shop as a meta-tool, and the concept of skill-sheds.

In the boat shop Asa Nodelman (a graduate of the NSCC heritage carpentry program at NSCC) provided a short but informative presentation on applying mathematical principals in the development of the component parts for Bevin’s Skiffs.

Eamonn DoorlyEamonn Doorly (Boat builder at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic) led the group through the initial construction phases of the Bevin’s Skiff, with the group assembling two hulls during Eamonn’s workshop:

Dr. Shane Theunissen (professor in Child and Youth Study) spoke briefly on lowering the costs of accessing communities, explaining how this provides avenues for a greater diversity of perspectives, and improves the long-term viability of the community.

Finally, a Big thank you to all those who attended to make this inaugural gathering a success. We will see everyone in our second gathering in 2020.

We’ll keep you posted!
https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/
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