The Barcelona World Race ends with successful participation in its educational programme
More than 30,000 students from 670 class groups at Catalan primary schools and high schools participated in the Barcelona World Race 2014-2015 educational programme, coordinated together with the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation.
More than 30,000 students from 670 class groups at Catalan primary schools and high schools participated in the Barcelona World Race 2014-2015 educational programme, coordinated together with the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation.
Since its creation, in the academic year 2007-2008, the number of participating students has been multiplied by 13. A total of 50,000 students have participated in the three editions of the Barcelona World Race (BWR).
The BWR educational programme offers schools the possibility to work on curriculum contents by using online materials and resources that allow students following the regatta while they go on a round-the-world trip.
This year, the Barcelona Foundation for Ocean Sailing, BWR organizer, set up, together with the UB, the Barcelona World Race Ocean Campus, pioneering initiative that offers massive open online courses (MOOC). To date, 8,000 people have already parcipated in them. The campus offers five courses, certified by the UB, on Meteorology, Medicine, Nutrition and Dietetics, Oceanography and Chronobiology. They include materials in Catalan, Spanish and English. Courses last between six and eight weeks.
The third edition of the Barcelona World Race ended on Tuesday 21 April, with the arrival of the pair of skippers qualified in eight position. The award ceremony, hosted by the Barcelona's Maritime Museum, was attended by UB professors Jordi Serra Raventós, delegate for Sustainability; Jordi Renom Pinsach, coordinator of the Ocean Campus and the BWR Educational Programme, and Ana Adan, head of the MOOC in Chronobiology.
Skippers Aleix Gelabert and Dídac Costa, aboard of One Planet One Ocean & Pharmaton and qualified in fourth position, collaborate in the UB study entitled “Cognitive Changes Associated With Ocean Sailing in Extreme Conditions”, led by Ana Adan and Josep Maria Serra Grabulosa, professors in the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology and researchers in the Consolidated Research Group on Neuropsychology of the UB. The project has monitored both BWR sailors to study biological patterns governing sleep and performance in oceanic sailing.
On the third edition, skippers enjoyed some new freeze-dried food products adapted to sailing requirements designed by Pere Castells, coordinator of the Educational and Research Unit of Science and Cuisine at the Food and Nutrition Campus of the UB, and the restaurants El Celler de Can Roca and Les Cols.