The Voyage of the Mimi
An educational series teaching science and math through a whale census voyage.
The Voyage of the Mimi is a thirteen-episode American educational television program that follows the crew of the ship Mimi as they explore the ocean and conduct a census of humpback whales. Created by the Bank Street College of Education in 1984, the series aired on PBS and was designed to teach middle-schoolers science and mathematics through real-world applications. Its production budget of 3.65 million dollars included 2.65 million from the United States Department of Education and 1 million from Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Educational
- Creator
- Bank Street College of Education
- Writer
- Richard Hendrick
- Director
- D'Arcy Marsh
- Composer
- Jeff Lass
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Episodes
- 13
Facts from the source article.
Episodes
Each episode splits into two fifteen-minute parts. The first part is a continuing fictional story about scientists counting humpback whales near Massachusetts. Captain Clement Tyler Granville, who owns the sailboat Mimi, gets hired by scientists Anne Abrams and Ramon Rojas for this census. Anne’s graduate research assistant is Sally Ruth Cochran. Two high school students, Arthur Spencer and Rachel Fairbanks, are asked to join the study. Captain Granville’s grandson, who shares his name, comes to stay for the summer so his mother can rest during her pregnancy. The second part of each episode explores a scientific idea from the story on its own. For instance, an episode about getting drinkable water teaches about condensation, heat, and the three states of matter. In these segments, an actor playing one of the young characters—usually Ben Affleck, Mark Graham, or Mary Tanner—steps out of character to interview a real scientist. These scientists include oceanographer Sylvia Earle, geologist Kim Kastens, zoologist Katharine Payne, Greg Watson from the New Alchemy Institute, and physicist Ted Taylor. Two other actors, Judy Pratt, a deaf student at Gallaudet University, and Peter Marston, a scientist at M.I.T. who actually owns the Mimi, also step out of character for interviews with Mary Tanner and Ben Affleck at their workplaces.
Sequel
A second series, The Second Voyage of the Mimi, was produced in 1988, in which the two Granvilles, along with other archaeologists, searched for a lost Mayan city and uncovered a conspiracy. Both series emphasized equal opportunity in math and science with a diverse cast, including race, gender, and disability status, and used an instructional strategy where the fictionalized adventure captured student interest. A planned third series about the Mississippi River, including its biology and history, was not made due to an inability to obtain funding.
The real Mimi
The Mimi was a 72-foot sailboat with a French origin, built in 1934 in Brittany, a region on the Iroise Sea coast of northwest France. It was a "Gabare d'Iroise," a term that combines the local word for a cargo barge with the name of its construction area. Its original design featured a deep hull and a shallow draft, making it tough enough for the rough North Sea while also able to navigate Europe's canals. Later, it was refitted as a tuna fishing trawler. During 1942, German forces took the Mimi to carry munitions and supplies to outposts along the Brittany coast. When the Germans retreated, they did not destroy the vessel; instead, they left it tied to a tree on a mudflat. After World War II, the Mimi was sunk and stayed underwater until the 1960s, when a French family purchased it and changed it from a trawler into a sailboat with a ketch rig. In the 1970s, someone sailed it across the Atlantic to New England. By 1984, Peter Marston owned the boat, and it was moored in Gloucester, Massachusetts, during the filming of "The Voyage of the Mimi" and afterward. From the late 1980s through the 1990s, the Mimi served as a floating classroom. Each school year, it sailed from New England to the Gulf of Mexico and back, stopping at scheduled ports to meet fourth through seventh graders and their teachers. These stops featured "Mimifests" with activities and talks on marine life, seamanship, and navigation. The boat also acted as a tourist draw in places like Salem and Boston. In 1988, Marston and other freelance musicians released a cassette called "Sea Songs from the Mimi Crew," a collection of old sea songs put out by "The Barn School" in Gloucester. Other souvenirs, including T-shirts and buttons that read "I was on board the Mimi," were once sold but are no longer produced and are hard to find on the resale market.
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