Sea, Sail, Science, Strong

Hurricane Island proudly closed out the summer with a new two week program called Women of the Sea. This program, for high school girls from Maine, was created in collaboration with the Boothbay Sea and Science Center  to provide an opportunity for young women to experience and understand the sea from both sailing and island-based perspectives. In order to study marine science and oceanography throughout the program, the the two weeks had 4 phases: 5 days of sailing and data collection on Vela; 2 days of leadership and teamwork on Hurricane; 5 days of independent research projects on Hurricane; and a day in Boothbay, preparing for community presentations at Bigelow Labs.

Island research...sorting baby scallops from our spat bags!

I enjoyed working with the girls during their time on Hurricane. They were observant and inquisitive as we traversed the island’s rocky intertidal zone. Their explorations led to research projects investigating the relationship between coralline algae cover and limpet population, the correlation between sea urchin size and number of decorations, the effect of tunicate presence on surrounding organisms, in addition to several questions about green crabs: how often do crabs of different sizes and sexes interact? How does intertidal substrate affect the size or sex of crabs found?  

Soaring through the raft challenge.

When I reflect on the nine participants in the program, one of the first words that comes to mind is STRONG. These young women were open-minded about their varied experiences, and they embraced new people throughout the course of the two weeks. They were resilient in their response to challenges, and they were supportive of each other. They built up each other’s self-esteem, reminding each other of their own strengths. I feel lucky to have worked with each of the individuals in the cohort this summer, and I hope we can offer this program in years to come.

Thank you to each of our inaugural women of the sea, and good luck this school year!

Women of the Sea on Vela in Hurricane Sound.

Integrating standards with authentic learning

The hallmark of everything we do on Hurricane Island comes down to education and research that are place-based and meaningful to our students and our communities regardless of the subjects we explore.  We work with schools to customize programming tailored to their student's needs, which frequently center around standards or other learning expectations that the students must meet during the course of that semester or school year.  My experience working with these teachers, and my own experience teaching in public school, is that standards that are more prescriptive become very straightforward in regards to both the learning target and how students are expected to demonstrate that learning. This can be very helpful for new teachers and often a relief for more experienced teachers who have weathered many changes in education. The sentiment of those teacher becomes, "if they are going to change it on us again, at least they are telling us exactly what they want". On the other hand, when standards become too narrow and prescriptive it can make it harder to fit more place-based, authentic science opportunities into traditional school systems.

We are fully in the midst of one of these sweeping shifts in education as most states have adopted the Common Core State Standards for both their English language arts and math standards and many have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards as well.  I recently was part of a small group who submitted comments to the Maine Department of Education about their proposed revision of the Maine Learning Results for Science and Technology. These comments, in collaboration with Bill Zoellick (Schoodic Insitutute) and Yvonne Thomas (Island Institute), are posted on Bill's blog, Thinking About Schools. We are looking forward to continuing to think about the ways we can move forward with the positive aspects of standards based education while avoiding some of the pitfalls that happen when things get too prescriptive.

https://thinkingaboutschools.wordpress.com/2017/09/11/ngss-its-not-so-simple/

Expanding Horizons in Advanced Marine Biology

Blog post written in collaboration with Teaching Assistant Sammi Clark.

This summer, Hurricane welcomed the high school students of our Advanced Marine Biology program. These students spent two weeks on Hurricane, designing their own research projects and exploring the island. We began by reviewing the scientific process, and jumped right into an initial step: observation. Whether we were noticing sea stars and sea urchins in the intertidal, hauling lobsters from the island traps, scallops from spat bags off the dock, or kelp from the aquaculture site, students naturally began to move on to the next phase of the scientific process: asking questions. Where does rockweed grow best? Do urchin tube feet strengthen with age? What sorts of habitats do tunicates prefer? Where will we find the highest concentration of green crabs or periwinkles? These questions led to hypotheses and data collection throughout Hurricane’s intertidal zones.

Before dinner one evening, our staff challenged students to sit with scientists visiting the island. One student embraced this by exclaiming, “Expand your horizons!” For the remainder of the program, this mantra was incorporated into social interactions as well as data collection and team challenge activities. The mantra encouraged students to push past their comfort zones and grow. Luna, a typically quiet student, expanded her horizons by socializing so much with students, staff, and visitors, that she lost her voice!  The mantra really came in handy during rock climbing; Kayla inspired everyone with her relentless determination as she spent thirty minutes attempting a tough section of the rock.

Students expanded their horizons in their data collection as well. They focused on details in the intertidal zone to put their hypotheses to the test. Anna, who was studying rockweed, found a 17 year old specimen - older than she was!

Happy to see so much rockweed!

On the last full day of the program, the island community gathered for the Advanced Marine Biology project presentations. The captivating presentations displayed not only the students’ understanding of the scientific process, but also their creativity. Rowan, who studied how urchins decorate themselves with rocks and seaweed, made a poster complete with urchin-shaped pie charts and the title “Extreme Makeover Urchin Addition.” Lauren, who studied periwinkles and their preferred cardinal direction, collected a bucketful of periwinkles as an additional visual aid, and was lighthearted and flexible when they started to escape during her presentation!

Seeing students excel outside of their comfort zones was rewarding to us as educators. Each evening, our group gathered on the pier to review the highlights of the day.  Sitting among the afterglow of sunlight on the expansive horizon, we reflected on our students’ continuous efforts to expand their own horizons for the duration of this two week program.

Rocking it!

Guest blog post by Science Educator Isabelle Holt

Hurricane resident, daughter of chef Julie, and avid young scientist Clementine passes down her knowledge about crabs.

Last week we had the immense pleasure of having the Camden-Rockport multiage class out on Hurricane where they learned about the rocky shores of the coast of Maine. 23 first and second graders piled on to the Equinox in our newly acquired bright-orange child-size life jackets. Excitement was high as we moved off the coast and even higher when we arrived on Hurricane and began to explore all that the island has to offer.

Algae says HOLDFAST!! Students clutch their feet to mimic the root-like structure that allows kelp to stay anchored in the buffeting waves.

The curiosity, optimism, and enthusiasm of these young scientists was the perfect way to wrap up the end of our long summer season and dive into fall programming. Not only was it our official first day of fall on Hurricane it was also Camden-Rockport’s first day of school! Without wasting time we got right down into the intertidal to find some of the marine organisms that call Maine’s rocky coasts their home. Streaks and shouts of excitement that most likely could be heard all the way on Vinalhaven were uttered as students learned how to identify and sex crabs, how to tell the age of a piece of rock weed, and how to hum so periwinkles would put out their antennae and start moving across their hands.

Students commune with the granite that makes up the vast majority of the island.

After lunch students were given the opportunity to reflect on how the different organisms they had just discovered were specifically adapted to the environment in which they live. After which we played some vigorous rounds of “Algae Says,” where students act out the different primary parts of a piece of algae, and “Sharks and Minnows,” a game designed to help children think about predator-prey relationships. By connecting these games to what the students had just seen in the field, we were able to make theoretical ecology just a little bit more concrete for these young scientists.

Students make the climb up some boulders on the way to Gibbons Point.

We wrapped up our day on Hurricane with a hike to Gibbons Point where we got to explore a different kind of rocky shore, the whaleback geologic formations, giant gently curved masses of granite that look like the back of a behemoth rising from the depths. After what was a long hike for small feet, we returned to the pier just in time to have a snack and catch the boat back to the mainland. Camden-Rockport Multiage came to Hurricane to learn about the rocky coast and in the process these lovely students thoroughly rocked it!

Students explore the 'whalebacks' at Gibbons. 

Forage ahead

Guest blog post by Science Educator Isabelle Holt

(MSIE) this year focused on the uses, contents, and creation of field guides. This allowed students to engage and create real materials that real scientists use. By the end of the week students had explored what makes and plant a plant and created separate field guides for both the many algae as well as lichen species that can be found here on Hurricane complete with title pages, dedications, works cited and indexes.

In order to get comfortable with using field guides before we attempted making our own we spent time in the intertidal zone exploring and identifying organisms as well as dip netting in the ice pond and identifying the freshwater macroinvertebrates that live there.

The fruits of our foraging before being prepared for dinner.

Our field guide was a crowd favorite, however, was the afternoon we spent using foraging for wild edibles and cooking dinner with what we found. Students were divided into teams and each team was given a copy of our Hurricane specific foraging field guide and sent on an adventure to find and sustainably harvest as many wild eatables as they could. The MSIE students were here at the height of the Hurricane wild raspberry, Rubus occidentalis, season and enough berries were collected to garnish the pudding that the MSIE students made for dessert using Irish Sea Moss, Chondrus crispus, a kind of alga, foraged from the intertidal zone. 

The students also prepared Ulva lactuca, Sea Lettuce, chips by searing this alga species in the oven at a high temperature with olive oil, salt, and pepper. For a beverage we had a Rosa rugosa, beach rose, rose hip and Achillea millefolium, yarrow tea. In order to get even more greens into our meal students, used beach pea, Lathyrus japonicus, leaves and pods to create a wild and Hurricane grown green salad, which they garnished with the petals of the same Rosa rugosa bush, from which the rose hips were collected.

Our Middle School Island Ecology students preparing to pour their pudding thickened with the carrageenan boiled out of the Irish Sea Moss they had foraged into ramekins before letting it sit and set before consumption. 

After creating their beautiful foraged meal students lead what is an honored tradition on Hurricane Island: the dinner circle. Traditionally at dinner circle whomever cooked the meal shares with the community what we will be eating for dinner and tonight it was MSIE’s turn. With their field guides in hand and their newfound ability to find and identify the eatable items in their environment, students presented each item that they had found and prepared with its common and Latin names, where on the island it could be found, what their identifying features are and how they had been prepared.

When it came time for the students to construct their own field guides to the lichens and algae found on Hurricane they produced their product with confidence, precision, care, and professionalism bolstered by their skills learned by foraging ahead for their dinner.

Vermiculture Sculpture

Guest blog post by Science Educator by Isabelle Holt

Team tower works on building their interchangeable bins with the precision necessary to be able to have one bin fit into another.

What a whirlwind of a week our High School Sustainability Leadership students had while they were here on Hurricane! The week kicked off with a discussion and solutions brainstorm for the worldwide problem of marine debris with our fabulous educational partners, The Rozalia Project.  After getting our creative juices flowing we jumped right in to design and build solutions to real sustainability problems today. Over the course of the week the students inoculated logs with shiitake mushrooms and designed and built their own vertical pallet gardens and vermicompost bins.

Team big box uses a hand plane to plane their box to perfection

Team big box presenting their finished product to the island community

Our students for High School Sustainability Leadership were a dynamic and engaging team comprised of students from all over New England as well as six students who came to us from Alpha Educator, an international education center for students from China. Having this dynamic mix allowed students to compare how sustainability issues are being addressed in their home countries and states and learn from one another.

As we try to move more in the direction of food independence on Hurricane, being able to sustainably garden has become a more pressing concern. Because there is so little soil on Hurricane and that which does exist is relatively nutrient poor, being able to rapidly produce high-quality organic input for our gardens is key. Hence, the students learned about vermicompost and made some of their own. Vermicompost is the product of using worms to process food waste. The worms, in our case Red Wigglers, eat the organic waste and then excrete nutrient rich castings, which can be used as agricultural inputs, or fertilizers. While we try to minimize food waste as much as possible on the island, some is always inevitable and composting is a great use for food scraps.

Team tower presenting their finished bin and demonstrating a bin exchange while showing audience members how the mesh bottoms of the bins work to filter out worm juices

After learning about the importance of composting, the benefits of vermicompost, and what worms need to thrive, the students split into three teams to design beautiful, as well as functional, worm bins. The three designs the students ended up building could be loosely classified as a big box design, a tower design, and a bench with a removable top in which the worms would live and work. The students did the calculations of for how much lumber they would need and what other materials their bins would require and once all of the necessary materials had been acquired it was time to build.

Team big box builds their bin in the Hurricane Island shop

The “big box” team drilled, hammered, sanded and planed their box that was large enough to fit a human inside into existence. The bottom of this box has gentle gradient, which allows for the worm “juice,” the liquid runoff from the composting products, to run towards and collect at one end of the bin where there is a hole from which this compost tea can be collected and returned to the gardens of Hurricane. This insures that the worms don’t drown in too much liquid. As the worms work through their initial starting materials, team big box envisioned a method of casting harvesting in which the already composted material would be pushed to one end of the box and new food scraps would be added to the other end. The hungry worms will move towards the new food allowing the students to take the compost without fear of loosing their precious worker worms.

Students sift soil to use as starting material for their worm bins

Team worm bench sits on their finished product after a long days work building

Team tower had an elegant design, which consisted of two identical boxes that fit into one another each with a mesh bottom that was wide enough to allow moisture to run from one box to another and then finally into the base, but not so large that the worms would be able to pass from layer to layer. As compost juice flows into the base of the structure one is able to harvest it through an opening in the side. Because both of the bins are interchangeable new food scraps could be added to the uppermost bin while worms continued to compost those bellow. When it comes time to harvest these casting the bins can be swapped allowing the bin that had had the newer food scraps to be moved to the bottom while the bin with the fully developed castings is dumped out on to a tarp. Because worms are photosensitive, when exposed to sunlight when dumped out on the tarp they move downward within the soil allowing the top layers to be taken and used without taking the worms with you.

Team bench scouted locations all over central campus keeping in mind sun exposure, accessibility to the galley, and where a bench was most needed and would be most frequently used by both island visitors and staff alike. After careful deliberation a site was chosen on the back deck on the wall of the infirmary because of its northwestern exposure and the fact that the raised up portion of the back deck would allow the bench to hang off the edge slightly and compost tea be collected from the bottom as needed. The bench is one open cavity inside, however, has a raised mesh bottom above the wooden bottom of the bench so that juices can flow through. 

Our High School Sustainability Leadership students left Hurricane confident in their abilities to identify the problems our world faces today and come up with creative sustainable solutions that will make the world a better place. The ability to see their ideas become a reality made what can often be an overwhelming task, living lightly on the earth, seem that much more achievable for the students of High School Sustainability Leadership 2017.

One of the team big box students pretends to be a human sized worm inside of her finished bin

Science Educator, Isabelle, and Teaching Assistant, Lilla, sitting on the finished worm composting bench on the back deck by the galley.

An interview with Hurricane Island's resident comedians and rays of sunshine

Guest blog post by Teaching Assistant Lilla Fortunoff

Sadie Claire befriending the algae on the Hurricane Island dock

When I first met Julie, Sadie Claire, and Clementine Danehy on our first boat ride out to Hurricane Island in mid-June, I didn’t know who they were or how they were connected to Hurricane. The cookbooks tucked under Julie’s arm gave me a bit of a hint, but I had no idea how much of an impact they all would have on my summer and on the Hurricane Island community as a whole. This summer, Hurricane Island has been graced with the season-long presence of two energetic, wonderful young women. Sadie Claire and Clementine Danehy (13.5 and 12 years-old, respectively) are the daughters of one of our chefs, Julie. Sadie Claire and Clementine take part in our middle school level open enrollment programs, but in their spare time they are always lending a helping hand wherever needed, sorting scallop spat bags with our research team, cleaning up, entertaining dogs and babies. They are endlessly funny and kind and I am happy to call them my friends. They hail from Austin, Texas, but have become completely at home on Hurricane. They have certainly made an impression on our community. Here is a peek into their impressions of their summer on Hurricane Island.

What is a fun fact about yourself?

Sadie Claire(SC): I am the one and only Hippoloptomus.

Clementine(C): I am the queen of the Dragocorns.

What about Hurricane is different than you expected?

SC: I thought the island would be bigger than it actually is.

Clementine shows off the harvest of our aquaculture kelp line

C: Well, since it’s an island I didn’t really think there would be a pizza oven so that’s really cool. I also thought there would be moose on the island, so it’s a little disappointing that they aren’t.

What do you like most about living in the Hurricane Island community?

SC: The thing I like the most about living here is that I get to know everyone better than I would if I were only here for a short period of time.

C: I like the people and I like the animals, I like the dogs and it’s just really fun.

What is your favorite thing to do on the island?

SC: Everything is so fun! But I especially love pier jumping, rock climbing, lobstering, the raft challenge, and working with the scallops.

C: I love the raft challenge, it’s really awesome, and I love jumping off the pier.

Where is your favorite place on the island?

SC: Sunset Rock, the Cracks, the intertidal zones, and the ocean.

C: My favorite place is probably the Crack because it’s near the Ice Pond and it’s really neat.

What is your favorite Hurricane Island plant or animal?

SC: My favorite plants on Hurricane are the raspberry and blueberry plants and my favorite  animal is the mink.

C: My favorite animal here is the mink and my favorite plants are the apple trees near the pizza oven.

What is one thing you would change about Hurricane Island?

SC: I wish we had permanent Hurricane Island pets! Like goats, chickens, pigs-not to eat.

C: I also wish we had animals like goats, pigs, and guinea fowl, which would be really good because they eat ticks!

What is something you’ve learned about the island that is interesting to you?

SC: The history of this island is so cool and fascinating.

C: I learned that it was a granite quarry and that was, like, WOW! Really cool.

What is something you’ve learned about yourself this summer?

SC: Something that I have learned about myself this summer is that I am not as shy/non-talkative as I thought.

C: That I love science! I never knew that, I seriously never knew that, but I do!

If you could have one thing come out of your belly button on command, what would it be?

SC: The one thing that I would want to come out of my belly button for the rest of my life (on and off) is a genie because he could grant me three wishes.

C: I would want rolled-up s’mores to come out of my belly button because square s’mores would hurt.

Clementine (right) and Sadie Claire (left) are wonderful dog care-takers!

I think I speak for the entire Hurricane Island staff when I say that Sadie Claire and Clementine have added so much to our community this summer. They have made me appreciate parts of the island that I would have over-looked without them, and their perspectives are always refreshing. The girls always know how to make us smile and keep the rest of the staff entertained and laughing. A recent visitor to the island described them perfectly by comparing Sadie Claire and Clementine to island fairies frolicking through the meadows, down the forests paths, and exploring the edge of the sea. These girls are full of sunshine and good spirits. We are so lucky to have them on Hurricane!

Notes from Dissection Dana: Middle School Marine Biology and the Mackerel

Guest blog post by Science Educator Dana Colihan

Middle school marine biology striking their poses!

Examining the mackerel

Last week Middle School Marine Biology was fortunate enough to catch SIX mackerel while fishing with Oakley on Fifth Generation. Mackerel are a migratory schooling fish which reach the coasts of Maine in the summer. They are beloved by many a Mainer, and well known for their iridescent skin and dark patterns on their backs. These patterns are schooling marks, which can help a fish know to adjust their speed and align themselves with the rest of the group by looking at the marks of their neighbors.                                        

Two years ago, I worked as Coral Reef Ecology Intern at the Cape Eleuthera Institute. A major aspect of my job was filleting and dissecting Lionfish to collect data on their stomach contents. While I had never dissected a fish before that summer, I quickly became extremely familiar with the ins and outs of dead fish. This is a skill I have brought with me to Hurricane Island and I have enjoyed sharing with different Hurricane Island programs. If you dissect a fish for someone else, then they have seen a fish dissection. But if you teach someone how to dissect a fish they can dissect fish for life!

Dissection discussion

Before breaking out the scalpels, Middle School Marine Biology had a conversation about what it means to dissect a fish. Why would we want to dissect a fish in the first place? What can we learn from it? Students went around, bouncing their ideas off each other. One student answered, “Through dissecting a fish we can see what’s inside of it!” Another responded, “If we look in it’s stomach, we can see what it’s been eating or if there are microplastics inside.” This is true! Dissections can be a really important way to learn about a species through observations and data collection. You can collect data through measuring its size, looking at a fish’s stomach contents to learn about its diet, and even find out its reproductive development through looking at a fish’s gonad stage. 

Mack-daddy!

Through our dissections Middle School Marine Biology and I learned two things about Mackerel. Firstly, they don’t have swim bladders. Swim bladders are internal organ in bony fish that help them control their buoyancy, allowing them to stay in place without having to swim. If they are not punctured when captured, swim bladders can look like little bubbles filled with air in a dissection. Mackerel are some of the few bony fish that do not have swim bladders. They swim so fast and frequently that Mackerel do not need to float in the same way other bony fish do.

The second thing we discovered in our dissection was what looked like two centimeter snippets of hair wriggling in the guts of the fish. Our mackerel were infected with “herring worm” or Anisakis, a parasitic nematode whose larvae are eaten by crustaceans. These crustaceans are eaten by fish like Herring and Mackerel, in which Anisakis encysts in the fish’s gut before being ingested by marine mammals where they develop into adult worms. For Middle School Marine Biology, the herring worms were a particularly disgusting and fascinating part of the dissection.

Hannah and Serafin making the first inscision

Fish dissections are gross. They are messy and stinky. Your fingers get covered in fish blood and guts, and the smell will remain on your hands even after washing them multiple times. But I love that fish dissections are gross. I love the excitement students’ have sticking their fingers down a fish’s mouth to find it’s stomach. I love how much information you can learn about a fish from looking at its insides. Dissections are extremely educational, extremely hands on, and extremely engaging. My hope is that Middle School Marine Biology left Hurricane Island not only a little fisher than when they arrived, but also that someday in the future, they could teach someone else how to dissect a fish.