Out in the Field: Citizen Science in Maine Middle Schools

You and your students will:

• Receive onsite classroom, technological and field support from Maine Audubon scientists and educators, and interact with an online community of OIF learners. Use dynamic town mapping and ecological software aligned with MLTI requirements, including EcoBeaker and web-based GIS programs aimed at middle school learners (MyWorld ARC GIS technology).
• Select a citizen science project for student participation. Adopt a section of road to monitor wildlife mortality, reporting data to an interactive Wildlife Road Watch website.
• Learn about local plants and animals while submitting phenology data (the timing of seasonal changes) that identifies local climate change impacts.
• Choose a final project to share findings with the local community (letters or presentations to planning boards, school parents, classes, editors of local newspapers).
• Develop curriculum around these projects with other OIF teachers.

Participating classes contribute their data directly to:

• Natures Notebook, Signs of the Seasons, National Phenology Network 
• Beginning with Habitat, Wildlife Road Watch

Teachers will attend a summer training at Kieve-Wavus Kennedy Learning Center in Nobleboro, Maine from July 23-27, and one day workshops in the winter and spring of 2013 (location and dates TBA).The summer training site is at Kieve-Wavus Kennedy Learning Center, 42 Kieve Rd, Nobleboro, ME.The Kennedy Learning Center offers a private retreat set on the shores of beautiful Damariscotta Lake with twin-bedded guest rooms, each with private bath, wireless internet, access to a private dock with canoes, kayaks and sailboats, and a large outdoor hot tub. Delicious meals and beverages provided, including special dietary needs.

To be an eligible applicant, you must:

• Teach public school in grades 6 – 8 for the year 2012-13
• Attend a five-day summer training at Kieve-Wavus Kennedy Learning Center, Nobleboro, Maine from July 23-27, 2012
• Attend a one-day workshop in the winter of 2013 (date and location TBA)
• Attend a one-day wrap-up and celebration in the spring of 2013 (date and location TBA)
• Submit final curriculum and program evaluation by July 15, 2013

And throughout the school year, demonstrate that you have:

• Begun by mid-October to implement curricula in classrooms
• Reported classroom data to interactive websites
• Presented classroom findings to local community
• Shared findings with OIF colleagues on designated intranet site.
• Worked collaboratively on curriculum development and program evaluation with OIF program coordinators and colleagues

Cathy Stivers
cstivers@maineaudubon.org
207-781-2330 ext 223

• University of Maine Cooperative Extension
• Maine Learning Technology Initiative
• National Phenology Network
• Beginning with Habitat