Coolderry N.S and the Spice Islands Project
The Spice Islands Project (1996) was a schools curriculum project, giving pupils the opportunity to followthe latest voyage of navigator! explorer Tim Severin. The voyage in question was to the Spice Islands of Indonesia, where Severin retraced the steps of famous explorer Alfred Russell Wallace, one of thefounders of the Theory of Evolution. The project was co-ordinated by the University of Limerick; it received financial assistance from the Dpeartment of Education, and from Bord na Gaeilge.

Pupils from Coolderry National School, Birr, Co. Offaly (Principal:Patrick D. Bates) participated in the project. This involved them in researching all about Indonesia and the Spice Islands. They also communicated regularly by email with Tim Severin while on his voyage, and kept a diary of the voyages progress. Pupils made a record of their particpation using Hyperstudio, a coloured authoring package (combining text, sound, and graphics) which is easy to use and available for each of the three platforms commonly used in Irish primary schools (PC/Archimedes/Macintosh).

Hyperstudio (published by TAG Developments Ltd., in the U.K.) costs approximately lRf120 (inc. VAT), It is available in Ireland from DISKOVERY, 18 Lr. Liffey Street, Dublin 1 . Tel: 01-8732822. Fax: 01-8732726.
A sample of the Coolderry pupilÕs own work on the project is shown below. Further information can be obtained by visiting the Coolderry N,S. Website on the Internet. On completing the voyage and returning to Ireland, Tim Severin visited Coolderry National School and met the pupils who had shown such keen interest in his expedition.
Tim Severin
Tim Severin was born in England in 1940. He was educated in Tonbridge School, and at Oxford University, where he studied the history of exploration. He sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, to prove that St. Brendan could have reached America. He also sailed the Sinbad voyage from Muscat to China.

Tim is now sailing around the Spice Islands of Indonesia, to follow in the footsteps of Alfred Russell Wallace. Coolderry School is part of the Spice Islands Project. We are writing to Tim Severin each week, and he writes back to us. There are six other people on the voyage with him: Yanis and Bobby from Warbal Island, Budi from Indonesia, Joe from London, Leonard from Dublin, and Julia from England. The boat they are sailing in is called a prahu. It is 48 feet long and made of bamboo, cut from a forest in Warbal Island. It is built the traditional way, and powered solely by wind caught in two large rectangular sails.

On this voyage, Tim will see many animals and birds including the Bird of Paradise, Cockatoos, Sea Turtles, and Dolphins. When Tim sends us reports, we look up the animals and birds on Microsoft's Encyclopaedia, Encarta 96.

by Paula Tooher, Olivia Hall, Sheila Kirwan, and Aoife Parlon.
Index Primary Computing January 1997
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