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The New Jersey Star-Ledger, 5/1/98 Pupils See Trailer They Tracked on Web
“Before I would have said so-and-so store,” explained the Millburn fourth-grader as she tore at the back of her white, short-sleeved turtleneck to check the tag at her neck. “Now I can say where it was made — Korea.” Nearby, standing in front of a cavernous garage at the American President Lines shipping yard in Kearny, a group of boys bounced around the driveway on one foot as they peered into their shoes. One boy’s gray suede sneakers were from Indonesia, and Ricky Chandler’s were from China. From talk of sneakers and faraway seaports, the discussion shifted to the ins and outs of international trade. Such talk of tare weights and cargo containers was not the usual banter of these 9- and 10-year-olds. But that was before their introduction to The Boomerang Box, a 40-foot-long, royal blue cargo container adorned with oversized stamps designed by Seattle schoolchildren featuring images of everything from Washington apples to the Seattle Supersonics to a yin-yang symbol.
Other than the students in Seattle, the Millburn fourth-graders are the only students to have had the chance to see the container in person, although thousands of students from around the world have been following its travels and trade missions, according to officials at the Port of Seattle and APL Limited, who are sponsoring the Web site. After seven months of staring at a computer screen, finally getting a chance to touch the big blue box was nothing less than “cool” for 9-year-old Oliver Roe, who admitted that when he first heard about the project, he thought it sounded boring. “This is an opportunity for them to make the curriculum come alive,” said Wyoming School teacher Mary-alice Palisano, adding that now when the students ask, “Why are we studying geography?,” she doesn’t even have to answer — other kids do it for her. She has integrated the adventures of the box into geography, math, science, reading and literature lessons. Barbara Chandler, whose son Ricky is in the class, said she too has learned quite a bit about international trade, which is a multibillion-dollar-a-year business, just from hearing her son talk at the dinner table. “He has just been so excited about it, for months now.” John Dilyard said the project has really motivated his daughter, Katie, who now spends free time checking out what else is new with the cargo box. “It is nice to see her doing something (on the Web) other than staring at Leonardo DiCaprio Web sites.” There has been no real way to measure school involvement, said Tina Montgomery, a project coordinator for APL. But judging by the number of hits the Web site has had — more than 90,000 — and the e-mail they have been getting — notes and inquiries from teachers and classes in Argentina, Israel and more — the project has been an overwhelming success. |
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| APL officials said they are even considering translating the site — currently available only in English — into other languages to make it more accessible to students. Although the morning event as mostly look-but-don’t-touch — the box was never opening and will not be unloaded until May 7 — the kids were put to work trying to figure out how to pack a cargo containers with marbles and Ping-Pong balls in an economical manner, paying attention to weight, height and balance restrictions. They also got a chance to explore the inside of an empty cargo container and crawl around the cab of a tractor-trailer. In addition, they got to make a video greeting for second- and fourth-graders in Seattle who sent them messages. The box will be filled with merchandise and shipped back to Seattle by May 17. More information can be found at the Web site: http://www.apl.com/boomerangbox. |
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