World Record Rower Zooms with 5th Grade

The youngest woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean solo, nonstop and unsupported, recently Zoomed with the 5th grade.

Teacher Mike McPharlin asks his students to share a current event story as part of their daily routine. After learning about Zara Lachlan, a 22-year-old British girl who recently broke rowing world records, from one of his students in their current event story, McPharlin reached out to her via social media to coordinate an opportunity for her to share more about her experience with his class.

Lachlan, in Cambridge, England, connected with a classroom of Parker 5th graders bright and early on a school day to relate her personal journey. After commending the student who featured her story in class and teacher McPharlin for reaching out to her, Lachlan led students through an AV slideshow detailing aspects of her 97-day, 3,600 nautical-mile journey from Lagos to French Guiana.

Lachlan showed photos of her boat, described how she packed her gear efficiently, outlined her meal plan and provided digital maps of her journey over time. She discussed the difficulty of the first 35 days of the trip, when she battled winds to make progress, losing distance every time she paused to sleep. She described her unexpected joy when entering the ocean to clean barnacles off her boat to maintain speed, the pain of a barracuda bite and sleeping on her side to avoid potential organ punctures from marlin poking their prey beneath her boat.

Students learned that Lachlan funded this trip with the aid of Team Forces Foundation and Women in Sport. She began rowing when she was 16 and said the only additional licensure she needed prior to attempting this crossing was for using the emergency radio onboard her boat.

In bringing their Zoom to an end, Lachlan thanked the students for their time, thoughtful questions and the opportunity to talk with them about her experience at sea. She reminded everyone that they are capable of accomplishing anything they want if they set their mind to it.

Parker thanks everyone who helped bring Lachlan to the 5th grade via Zoom.

Enjoy photos from this experience here.