Making sensor of it all

Giant ocean-racing yachts will help the world's top scientists - and New Zealand schoolchildren - learn more about our environment, reports ROBIN BAILEY.

Tiny sensors dotted on the boats crashing around the globe in the Volvo Ocean Race will help thousands of New Zealand children to better understand the world's ever-changing environment.

Wherever the race fleet is, the sensors will pick up the colour of the ocean and the temperature of the water and feed it back to some of the world's top scientists. The data will automatically travel to a website where school students around the globe will be encouraged to learn more about their environment.

Hundreds of New Zealand schools have registered their interest in getting involved in the Volvo Ocean Adventure project. Data will start flooding the website in earnest when the race boats sail off from Southampton in just over a week, on September 23.

The website www.volvooceanadventure.org is seen as a free education tool, allowing students to monitor different ocean conditions as the yachts pass through them and see how the oceans regulate the global climate.

New Zealand schools are being encouraged to use the Volvo Ocean Adventure website with their daily lessons and to enter an international contest. Students aged between 10 and 16 can enter assignments in a nationwide competition, with the winning group flying to Gothenberg, Sweden, late next year to submit their project for judging at an environmental conference for young people.

Teachers will have access to a resource kit, made in this country, which is linked to the national school curriculum.

Niwa, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research, has played a major role in helping produce the 67-page teachers' guide. It shows how the website material can be used in maths (calculating the data), social studies, science and technology, languages and the arts (as the race stops in different parts of the world).

All eight yachts in the race will carry a number of lightweight sensors, which are hidden away so as not to affect the boat's performance. Their information is fed daily to the website, together with satellite images of the world from Nasa - one of the major partners in the project.

Colour and temperature readings indicate how much carbon dioxide is being absorbed by phytoplankton.

A chain of temperature sensors are located at different depths down the keel or rudder, and there are two ocean colour sensors - one at the stern and the other on the bottom of the hull.

There is also a revolutionary wave height reader, to constantly measure waves between 0-130m. The scientific instruments are also part of a larger research programme to develop low-cost sensors for commercial shipping.

All scientific data gathered from the boats is being coordinated by scientists at the Southampton Oceanography Centre in England. Scientists from the University of Auckland and the Leigh marine laboratory provided research for the project - especially in the areas of marine ecology and the influence of the Southern Ocean on global climate change.

Volvo's drive behind the project is to help encourage young people to be aware of their environment, with the hope that they will make a difference to the future.

"Environmental care is a core Volvo value," says John Snaith, general manager of Volvo Cars New Zealand. "I'm thrilled that we are supporting an education programme that can contribute to giving young people a better understanding of the world's environment which affects everyone's future."

Auckland Mayor Christine Fletcher has agreed to be New Zealand's ambassador for the Volvo Ocean Adventure and world-renowned naturalist David Attenborough is the global ambassador for the project.

"Christine sees the Volvo Ocean Adventure as a key enhancement to the Volvo Ocean Race," Snaith said.

"She saw how children were excited by the last Around Alone and Whitbread races that came to Auckland. Now the Volvo Ocean Adventure broadens the interest beyond a boat race."

Schools can access the website and receive information directly to assist in their own projects.

The closing date for the New Zealand schools competition is March 31.