Pittsburgh Voyager is a non-profit educational organization that operates a river learning center for students, teachers and the community of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Voyager was founded in 1992 by a group of parents who wanted use Pittsburgh's rivers as an experiential classroom to get children excited about science, mathematics and learning.

All of Pittsburgh Voyager's programs are adventure-based, discovery programs that engage students, young and senior, in hands-on learning while exploring Pittsburgh's Three Rivers. At the center of Voyager's education programs are two retired U.S. Navy vessels originally used to train midshipmen in navigation. These vessels have been refurbished and put into educational service again as fully operational state-of-the-art floating classrooms now referred to as Voyager and Discovery.

The CMU team recognized the extraordinary opportunity it had when introduced to Voyager. With this opportunity also came the need to be extra sensitive to what Voyager is about as an organization. What our client offers is a chance to step beyond the rote, one-way delivery found in many classrooms. There's a chance for students to be at the heart of scientific data collection and to immediately be able to draw conclusions about what they themselves do, not what is lectured to them. To this extent, the CMU team strove to find ways to keep students engaged while keeping instructors at the forefront of the experience. The technology should be a byproduct that weaves itself invisibly into the on-boat experience for all involved.
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“Oh how cool! That’s really cool!” “I’m excited! I can’t wait!” - U1 “It’s great to just be able to hold this, have that up on the screen and not have to try to juggle papers and examples and things like that in my hand while kids are standing there” - U3 “It’s a really great thing. I kind of wish I was staying to be able to use it” - U3 “I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that would make it better than what it is” - U3 “That would be great... Everybody teaches so different” (after telling her about the “default instructor” feature). - U3 “I thought it was pretty easy to use” - U2 “I think it will be really a lot more helpful to have this instead of holding up the laminated sheets for kids. I think they’ll see a lot better, maybe pay attention more” - U2 "...could you then "ricardonate" my outfit?" - Karl Thomas at Searchlight's final presentation |