CHIEF ENGINEER for The Brothers summons his crews for a briefing while his assistant chief places tools on a chart table. They include a global positioning system (GPS), four laminated 1:20,000 topographical map sheets, an A3 route map, binoculars, an optical clinometer, washable marker pens, a one-metre ruler, a harbour resource pack, and a roll of clear tape. The Bauhinia ferry weighs anchor and pulls away from its Wan Chai moorings and the student teams tackle their first task - the giant harbour puzzle. They have to assemble the four laminated sheets, each one a quarter-sized section of a map of Hong Kong's maritime regions. 'Putting together the maps is not as easy as it looks,' says David Brian, head of humanities at Chinese International School (CIS). 'But it's a great warm-up activity. It gives the students a sense of place, a sense of how the harbour fits together with Hong Kong.' The students are split into teams of eight, each named after islands around Hong Kong, such as The Brothers, Lamma or Cheung Chau. Led by a 'chief engineer' and an 'assistant chief engineer' - student team leaders - the 114 Year Nine pupils from CIS embark upon the Classroom on the Harbour education project which took place earlier this week. The history of the harbour is the history of Hong Kong. This is, after all, where the British first arrived and then left 156 years later, where fortunes were made through import and exports during the 1970s and 1980s, and where land reclamation has changed the face of the territory forever. Few images sum up the past 100 years of Hong Kong history better than photos of the waterfront at the turn of the 20th century and shots taken today. But while most residents see the harbour as a transport hub for commuters or a photogenic spot for tourists, a group of CIS teachers regard it as rich pool of raw educational material. 'The harbour is a fantastic resource,' said Brian, a geographer by trade. 'Here we can do history, maths, science, languages, and geography.' He hopes the experience adjusts the way students and teachers think about Hong Kong's waterways and enriches their appreciation of a much under-used historical barometer. After successfully arranging the maps, teams took on their next challenge - calculating the height of the International Finance Centre 2 tower from a mooring off Central's waterfront. 'It's easy when you get the hang of it,' said the Tung Lung Chau team, gathered on the open-air viewing deck. 'You first measure the angle of elevation with the clinometer and then work out your position with the GPS. You can then find the height by calculating how far away you are from the building.' After that, they compared the view of the Central skyscrapers with photos of the waterfront taken in 1905, concentrating on height, structure, building materials and style, and speculating why the buildings are so tall. At the next mooring, Penny's Bay, groups evaluated the impact of the Disney development on the surrounding area, and at Kwai Chung they compared how ships' loading and unloading techniques have changed over the years. These site-specific activities are cross-disciplinary, combining elements of maths, sciences, languages, geography and history. It is an approach teams aboard the Bauhinia will become accustomed to over the next two years. They are the first CIS students to tackle the Middle Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate, which provides a formal framework for cross-discipline study. In addition to site-specific tasks, students had to fathom subject-specific challenges, such as measuring air pollution at different harbour locations during the morning. 'They locate the furthest visible landmark and calculate its distance from the ship using the GPS. They repeat this at five locations to get an idea of visibility at different points during the day,' said science teacher Michael Etheridge. For testing water quality, one group tied string to a plastic bottle and scooped water directly from the harbour. 'We could only get a little bit because the opening of the bottle was too small,' said one of the team. Their plan was to test the water's pH values. Rounding up this activity, students were asked when they thought the cross-harbour swim should resume. The general impression was 'not yet'. Other activities included prizes for the first to spot a Panamanian registered vessel, identify ships' flags or point out a pilot boat - not a 'pirate' ship as one group misheard. 'I've learned a lot,' said Terence Tong Ming-him, 14, The Brothers' chief engineer, towards the end of the day. 'I live in an apartment in North Point that overlooks the harbour but I didn't really know much about it until now.' Nicolas Wong Sze-hon, also 14, of the Po Toi Islands team, agreed. 'We've really had to think about what the harbour means to us as Hong Kong residents. Some of the tasks were easy but others were a definite challenge.' Susan Papper, a CIS geography teacher, said that the one-day harbour cruise had originally been part of a longer four-day excursion around the Pearl River delta, but the trip was cancelled, largely because of Sars. This was the first sea-going education trip CIS had organised and took two to three months to set up. It was made possible because the Hong Kong Ferry Group offered a generous discount on the educational cruise, the first it has organised. Each student paid $300, which included a buffet lunch. Sales manager Peter Leung Chor-lau says the company is keen to encourage more schools. 'We're happy to offer discounts to schools groups. The cost is not unreasonable because it includes good food, comfortable facilities and experienced staff,' she said. Brian says the educational trips are accessible to all schools. 'They certainly meet sound educational goals. If a school supports 'beyond the classroom learning', teachers will organise this kind of activity.' He adds that the thrill is to take students into their own backyard and provide them with an experience which will stay with them for years to come. 'Possibly these students we brought out today may have altered their own view of what the harbour means to them,' he said. For more information on hiring the Bauhinia for educational cruises call 2586 1612. The Classroom on the Harbour Web site is at www.cis.edu.hk/sec/ss/geography/ year9/coth/index.html
