VERGENNES, Vt. -
Middlebury College's newest classroom floats.
The college launched the R/V Folger on Friday at the Basin Harbor Club. It's a brand new 45-foot research vessel that replaces a much smaller and older boat. It can travel the entire length of Lake Champlain and doubles the number of students who can take part in the voyage. The floating laboratory will allow students to explore everything from fish spawning grounds to geologic history to water circulation patterns.
"It is a state of the art floating laboratory we can teach our students some of the best technology that is being used out doing research out on the ocean rivers and lake and such," said Patricia Manley, a geology professor at Middlebury College.
"We can accommodate more students we can gather more data, at the same time get a wide range of experience of what you want to look at. Whereas before we were not necessarily able to," said Zach Perzan, a junior geology and economics major.
The floating classroom cost more than 2.4 million dollars to equip and launch. The majority of the money comes from a National Science Foundation grant. The old boat, the R/V Baldwin, was donated to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.
