OAKLAND, Calif., April 21, 2000 -- Today's teachers are seeking hands-on learning projects for the classroom that also include Web-based curriculum. Aiming to meet their needs, global container transportation and logistics provider APL is rolling out a specially-outfitted cargo container -- converted to a mobile classroom -- that will help students learn about international trade.

The mobile classroom is part of an educational effort that started three years ago with a colorful, 40-foot shipping container known as the "Boomerang Box" that actually carries commercial cargo, allowing school children to follow its global journeys via an interactive Web site, http://www.apl.com/boomerangbox.

The program, in which some 150 schools around the world now participate, just had its first offspring: APL is launching "Boomerang Box Junior," a 20-foot container replica of the original Box.

The project, in conjunction with an on-line curriculum, teaches kids from 6 through 18 years old about geography, world cultures, reading and international trade via a full curriculum on its Web site.

The original 40-foot shipping container has carried shipments to points throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. Last Spring , when it arrived in Singapore to take on cargo, it drew a large crowd of children and civic officials, and was greeted by executives of APL's parent organization, Neptune Orient Lines. Students from more than 15 countries have learned about international trade from the program's Web site, which has had more than 116,000 hits since the current school year began in September.

"Junior" to travel in US, then abroad
"The mobile classroom enhances APL's commitment to educating young people on a fundamental element of economics: international trade," said Ed Aldridge, president of APL's Americas Region. "We are pleased that this program has attracted the interest of so many teachers and students, and proud to contribute to the knowledge of young people around the globe."

What kind of rotation is planned for the mobile classroom? APL said the initial goal is to take it to those schools in the United States that contributed art for the exterior of the box. The company will then begin scheduling it for visits to schools and events around the world.

Already the new box has journeyed from Oakland, California, the project's home base, to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where it visited a classroom of fifth-grade students at Maplewood Elementary. It will visit a number of public elementary schools in the New York City - New Jersey area from late April through early May, when it will head west for stops in Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The idea behind the Junior Box came from repeated requests from teachers and students to have the larger cargo-carrying Boomerang Box come to their schools. But in order to keep the educational program's content accurate and fresh, the larger unit must continuously move around the globe carrying goods for APL's customers. "The big box is in actual world-trade service and just couldn't make extended stops," explained John Pachtner, APL director, Corporate Communications. "So we designed Junior."

Loaded with content instead of cargo
The outside of the mobile classroom is decorated with art produced for it by students in six classrooms around the U.S., as well as with illustrations of "Boomer," the surfing APL eagle and "mascot" of the project. Inside, a world map indicates where the larger, 40-foot Boomerang Box has been and what commodities it has carried.

Another area of the junior box tells of APL's 150-year history, and how trade and transportation have evolved. An adjacent question-and-answer panel enables youngsters to test their knowledge of what's involved in today's exciting world of global trade.

A seven-minute video, featuring the animated Boomer, explains the project and some basic concepts of trade by following a computer-game toy as it leaves the manufacturing site in one country and moves to a retail location in another. The video also provides instructions on how to use the Internet site to track the movements of the larger Boomerang Box.

Web-based curriculum
Through the Web site, students, teachers and parents can track the whereabouts of the active 40-foot shipping container, and learn such things as which countries produce the clothes they wear, the products they use and the food they eat. Students can also set up email or pen-pal exchanges with children all around the world.

The Boomerang Box Web site also offers specially-developed academic exercises for students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. These are easy for teachers to implement and are based on academic standards that are designed to build skills in reading, writing and problem solving.

The Boomerang Box project was started in 1997 by the Port of Seattle and APL's Americas Region headquarters, based in Oakland. Since its inception, the 40-foot cargo container has traveled continually by containership to points in Asia, Europe and the U.S., carrying actual cargo for APL customers. Its adventures have been tracked by students globally on the Internet and have been featured in the New York Times and National Geographic. The project's Web site was featured as a Yahoo! pick-of-the-day.

APL acknowledged the contributions of several companies that have partnered with the Boomerang Box project by providing transportation services: Bay Area Container, Bear Cartage and Intermodal, Inc. and Pacer Stacktrain.

APL provides customers around the world with container transportation and logistics services through a network combining high-quality intermodal operations with state-of-the-art information technology. APL is the container and logistics arm of Neptune Orient Lines Limited, a global transportation and logistics company engaged in shipping and related businesses.

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Media contact: John Pachtner of APL, tel. (510) 272-7208 or email: john_pachtner@apl.com. APL press releases available by fax, tel. (800) 758-5804, ext. 107003, or at http://www.apl.com.