Island Updates

Aquaculture retreat brings educators together

Blog post by guest contributor Yvonne Thomas (Education Director, Island Institute) and Director of Education Dr. Jennifer Page

Hurricane Island was excited to host a group of Maine middle and high school educators for an Aquaculture Workshop last weekend in collaboration with the Island Institute and Herring Gut Learning Center.  Participants came from island and coastal schools, including to share experiences and learn about bringing aquaculture education into their classrooms through a variety of species and approaches and enjoyed a relaxing retreat complete with fantastic meals, amazing hikes, and an evening campfire with s'mores.... can you think of a better way to earn CEUs?

Alex shares an array of kelp snacks and other products (including soap!)

As soon as the educators were settled into their cabins they convened in our lab for an introduction and welcome session to get us started.  Herring Gut educator Alex Brasili led the educators through a "Kelp 101" discussion (including kelp snacks!) and then quickly got us out in the field to get up close and personal with algae in the intertidal zone.  Alex demonstrated ways to set up stations to get kids to cycle through the various levels of zonation with some level of autonomy and educators got a chance to play in the seaweed and share their knowledge. After some time messing around in the intertidal, educators came together on the rocks to discuss their experiences and best practices for bringing kids into field situations.

Scallop spat in a wide variety of colors and patterns that they will lose as they grow older

Despite the threat of significant rain all day, the weather held out beyond spitting at us during our after lunch session out on the pier and floating dock. Hurricane Island Research Assistant Bailey Moritz walked the group through our work with scallops and her efforts to bring scallop aquaculture to Hurricane. This included introductions to the gear, the methods, and, most importantly, to the adorable baby scallops that will make anyone want to be an aquaculturist!  You can read more about the scallop project and learn about spat (baby scallops) in Bailey's post from earlier this year.  The crew opened one of Bailey's spat bags and searched through the netting to find nudibranchs, starfish, crabs, and, of course, tons of baby scallops that we will be using to seed our own bottom cages to start shellfish aquaculture on Hurricane Island.

Back in the lab, we warmed up and learned about kelp aquaculture and how to identify and handle kelp reproductive tissue (sorus). We heard about the collaboration between Hurricane Island and Northport's Edna Drinkwater School to grow kelp in their classroom to be 'planted' by the students at Hurricane's aquaculture site in October. We hoped to release some spores but had to settle for looking at videos of kelp spores running around under a microscope when the sorus tissue we had prepared didn't release spores as planned - which served as an excellent reminder that you can't control nature! Teachers got a chance to see the equipment needed to set up kelp cultivation in their own classrooms and we discussed the mechanics of creating their own aquaculture site near their school.  Some educators opted to keep their model sites on paper but Alex produced an amazing array of odds and ends for educators to mock up their own site as a scale model to test in the lab aquarium.

Unfortunately, Alex was only able to join us for the first day so as we said 'goodbye' to her we switched gears and headed our on a Hurricane Island history hike, complete with the requisite amazing views from the high cliffs and images of what the island looked like when it was a functioning quarry in the early 1900's.  The rest of the evening was devoted to free time, a leisurely dinner, and a campfire complete with s'mores and great conversations.

Sunday dawned sunny and beautiful, if a little cool. Being teachers, many of us were up early, catching up on communications from the day before and waiting for coffee - we drained the first caraf in no time at all. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and then had our first session of the day with HIF chef Eric Howton, who shared ideas and resources about sustainable food systems and how he is incorporating unfamiliar foods such as seaweeds into the menus at Hurricane (pickled kelp stipes anyone?). 

Jenn and Val trying to identify a tunicate that was growing on some of the kelp

Bailey demonstrating how to string seeded kelp line to the long line

Now it was time for the highlight of the workshop – checking out the kelp lines! We divided into two groups and rotated through two kelp line experiences. One group hopped into a boat with Silas and motored out to the north end of the island to see and touch the kelp line that was seeded by Deer Isle-Stonington High School students last fall. Teachers were fascinated by the kelp itself and all the other organisms growing on it. Once back ashore, several headed up to the lab to look under the microscope at the colonies of tunicates covering the kelp blades. The other group worked with Bailey on land where she demonstrated the method they’ve developed for ‘practicing’ to install seeded kelp string onto the long line and the specially designed kelp drying racks used once the kelp has been harvested. You can read more about kelp in Bailey’s post from last year.  

Once everyone had visited the kelp lines, we regrouped in the new classroom space to debrief what we’d learned seen and discuss the permitting process. Several teachers had already filed an LPA (Limited Purpose Aquaculture) permit with their students and we all benefited from the range of experience and expertise among our group. Before lunch, we had a short period of free time and it was low tide, so some of us explored the intertidal near Two Bush island while others took advantage of the chance to reflect and enjoy some quiet time in the sun.

At lunch, we were joined by a new group of students from Fryeburg Academy who had just arrived. Some of the Hurricane staff were also busy preparing for the Farm-to-Table dinner that was planned for later on in the afternoon. Hurricane is a vibrant place with multiple projects and programs going on simultaneously, adding to the positive and productive energy of the place.

After lunch we returned to the upper classroom to learn about water quality testing equipment that is available for schools to use and shared other ideas for tools and equipment that could help move our collective aquaculture education work forward. Teachers shared their impressions of the workshop and the next steps they planned to take to incorporate aquaculture into their curriculums. Then it was time to pack up and head back to Vinalhaven for the 2:45 ferry back to the mainland.

There were many ‘best’ parts of this workshop, but of particular note is the commitment of these teachers to travel (significant distances in some cases) and contribute so much of their time (including a precious Saturday) and talents. The collaboration with Hurricane, Herring Gut and the Island Institute, together with the dedication and expertise of the teachers who participated, made for a very interesting and successful workshop.

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Island Design Assembly enriches Hurricane Island

Video by CMG Fellow Wilder Nicholson

Photos courtesy of Island Design Assembly

In 2012, on Bear Island in the northern part of Penobscot Bay, John McLeod and Steve Kredell, two architects from Middlebury, Vermont, gave light to an idea that had been percolating between them for many years.  They had visited the island many years before with Jonathan Marvel, an architect from New York City who’s family owned it over the years. Bear Island already has a rich history of architecture and design, having been the summer home of Buckminster Fuller, an American architect, designer, and inventor who is best know for his geodesic domes and “Spaceship Earth”. Somewhere in the years that passed between their visit to this small Maine island, years that took them from a large firm in NYC and brought them together to form their own firm in Middlebury (McLeod Kredell Architects) and to begin teaching at local colleges, they decided to make this idea something real.  The idea: to bring a group of students, architects, educators and builders together in a remote place, to live-design, build and install a community based project. With that, in 2012 the Bear Island Design Assembly (BIDA) was formed.  In concept, it’s a design-build program, but the outcome, both in form, function, and at the core of the experiences, is something much more. 

During the first year of the program in 2012, students designed and built benches for Bear Island and spent a day on Hurricane Island visiting a former Middlebury student and now former Hurricane Island Foundation employee, Addison Godine. The group helped in the early stages of design renovation of the Hurricane Galley and office space: demolition.  It was through Addison that I became involved and, in 2013, was fortunate enough spend the latter part of the week during the construction phase of the project.  It was there on Bear Island that I became intrigued and captured by the concept and execution of this program.  As the program evolved a theme emerged of designing and building structures for year-round Maine island schools that had some agricultural connection.  The projects in 2013 and 2014 were in the community of Islesboro Island for the Islesboro Central School, where a farm stand and two variations on chicken tractors were built.  In 2015, the program moved further south down the bay to North Haven Island for a composting project, the result was the “Compost Commons”, or in relation to the form, the “compost towers”. 

Throughout those first few years of the program many conversations took place between participants and instructors to look at the purpose, vision and mission of the program and to look forward at what it could become, as each year the program began to form and evolve and, as in architecture and design, the form and function work symbiotically together.  In the late fall of 2015, John and Steve decided to move the program away from Bear Island to Hurricane Island. With the move they decided to change the name to the Island Design Assembly (IDA), a change that perhaps will allow the program to continually be nimble and innovative and to not be limited by geography or place.

On the final day of August, the group of 12 participants and 4 instructors took the Maine State Ferry to Vinalhaven Island to do a site visit at the Vinalhaven School and to meet with the superintendent of the school, Bruce Mailloux, and the Alan Koenig, the Facilities Manager to get an understanding of the project parameters, site location, and to get an sense of the island and school community.  This year the purpose of the project was to create a “greenhouse” for the school that would provide both functional growing capabilities but also would serve as an educational space. As with all the projects to date, there is a direct connection between the a representative of the project and the instructors ahead of time to gain an understanding of the need of the project, how it is intended to be used, and what the ideal outcome would be. However, by intention there is no discussion about what the final product will be as that is the purpose of the program, to allow the design process the opportunity to develop something that is unique and that perhaps defies custom and convention.

From Vinalhaven, the group was transported to Hurricane to settle in and to begin to immerse themselves in the process of the Island Design Assembly.  The classroom on Hurricane was transformed into a design studio where, over the course of the first 24 hours, the group dove into the design process where they discussed and developed a collective understanding of the project parameters and began forming concepts into scaled models to present and discuss, modify and change into a final design scheme that the collective agreed upon.  The next stage is to break the design down into individual components, not only to create a material list, but also with the understanding that whatever is built within the project must be transported off Hurricane to Vinalhaven. 

On day 4 the materials were delivered from Viking Lumber on Vinalhaven, transported to Hurricane and the building began.  Under the direction of master builder Alex Carver (co-owner of Northern Timbers Construction), participants learned how to safely use hand and power tools and then divided into groups to start construction of the greenhouse structure and the “planterns.”  The days were long, but the group found time to explore the island, take frequent swims in the Sound, and to get to know Hurricane.

The final day involved loading the component parts of the structure onto Hurricane’s boat, the Eastern Flyer and 5th Generation, to be transported to Carver’s Harbor on Vinalhaven.  From there, the pieces were brought to school and assembled on location amidst the elementary school recess.  Immediately there were students that were exploring the greenhouse and asking lots of questions with great excitement about starting garden clubs and planting seeds in the spring.

We are delighted to be able to support the Island Design Assembly on Hurricane and to continue to support the exciting and innovative design process that ultimately helps support the year round island communities and schools of Penobscot Bay.  We are already looking forward to IDA 2017!

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Building community: On the island with Ocean Classroom and beyond

Guest blog post by Science Educator Rachel Kimpton

One of Hurricane Island’s most integral assets and programmatic themes is that of “community.” In almost all of our programs, especially with high school students, we emphasize their participation in and contributions to our own island community, and how those experiences translate to their own on (or off!) the mainland. What does “community” look like, especially on an island? How is it taught? Why do we teach and emphasize it? And how does this relate to our role as educators of science and leadership? I think it’s easy to understand the “science” component of the work that we do on Hurricane, as our programs focus on environmental stewardship through experiential field science. How do our programs develop leadership through community, foster critical dialogue around these experiences, and instill a desire for positive impacts and change?

Mastering knots

Last week, Robin and I worked with students from Proctor Academy’s Ocean Classroom. This course takes high school students abroad for a semester at sea to develop their seamanship and global citizenship while learning marine science, maritime history, and more. A skill that integral to the success of any crew, landlocked or at sea, is that of participation in that community as clear communicators and active listeners. This group began their semester at Hurricane to bond with each other and develop their skills of close observation, clear communication, and active listening before setting sail.

Launching the products of the raft challenge

On their very first day, I posed a question to the group of 22 soon-to-be-sailors: what does community mean to you? And how does an individual make an intentional community stronger or successful? Over the course of their four day program, the students worked together through exercises like our raft challenge, rowing in the gigs, and developing scavenger hunts for each other with orienteering-based clues. They filled the darkness with their screams of delight as we jumped off the pier during low tide for a night swim among bioluminescent plankton, despite the dense fog and cold water. They supported each other and erupted with cheers while squeezing through the classic Hurricane Island challenge of the narrow frostwedge “crack.” We spent each evening before dinner hiking to a different point on the island to silently reflect on that day’s happenings and enjoy the scenery. Even during their short program, I saw tremendous amounts of growth and improvement within the group.

The long walk home....

Earlier this summer, the Hawaiian Hokule’a vessel of the Polynesian Voyaging Society stopped by to share their work with us. They also imparted their own insights and knowledge about living as a community, which is best summarized by the helpful phrase they shared with us: “an island is a canoe, and a canoe is an island.” Robin and I shared this concept with the Ocean Classroom students, as it applied to their time with us and for their journey ahead. On islands and on boats, physical and emotional resources are limited, thus one must rely on the resources at hand in order to succeed.

Teamwork at its finest

Before I came to Hurricane, I felt like “community” was a word that got thrown around a lot and was starting to lose meaning. I have moved at least once a year for the last seven years of my life. That’s a lot of moving, and a lot of different living spaces, a handful of different cities, many different jobs, and tons of different people. Although I would develop strong relationships with the people in these places, my transience made it hard for me to develop a deep relationship with these spaces. Something just felt… disconnected. Perhaps I never fully committed myself in the way one does to community belonging because I knew it would only be another six months or so until I moved to a different neighborhood or city.

When I came to Hurricane, I chose to belong to an intentional community. My coworkers are not just my coworkers. They are my neighbors, my teachers, my friends, my emotional support system. They are listeners, they give honest advice, they share smiles, laughter, tears, and struggles. Choosing to belong and participate in a community is embracing our humanness and our need for others in order to survive. “Community” is not a phrase that is limited to geographic or physical spaces, as we are a world of hypermobile and digital communities as well. Our staff, island visitors, and program participants contribute pieces of their many communities of place and culture out here, creating a community that is unique and constantly in flux with each new group that arrives and departs.

Heading out for lobstering

Together, we are a community of scientists and artists who ask questions, experiment with courage, and make discoveries. We are naturalists and environmental stewards, appreciating, respecting, and protecting the smallest gifts that nature offers us, from the newly hatched dragonflies near the ice pond to the osprey catching fish right off our dock. We are educators sharing what we love and facilitating conversations to inspire and affect positive change. We are humans who love, feel, hurt, think, and act like, and unlike, those around us.

On a row to Dead Man's Ledge

We do not abandon or disassociate ourselves from our communities when we venture 12 miles out to this small island in Penobscot Bay. Instead, we invoke and engage them, we share them, and we embrace and learn about those that are new to us. Perhaps we discover that there are communities that await us, which we never realized we belonged to until we first stepped onto Hurricane’s dock.

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North Haven 5th and 6th Graders: Community and Survival

Guest blog post by Science Educator Robin Chernow

During the summer season, we offer open enrollment programs for middle and high school students. Any middle or high school student can sign up, and usually, none of the students in the same program know each other. As a staff, we work hard to establish a welcoming community and a positive culture on the island. Throughout the week, the students warm up to each other, and the community strengthens as students are building it, not just the staff.

During the fall, we work directly with schools to enroll a whole group of students, along with teachers and chaperones. For these programs, the students and teachers already know each other. They bring the culture of their school and their community to Hurricane Island. This is awesome because the groups are already cohesive and have strategies for working together. This was especially true of the North Haven 5th and 6th graders who were here last week. The ten students in the 5th and 6th grade know each other incredibly well, having been classmates for years. As soon as they hopped off the boat, I noticed how the North Haven students were comfortable with each other and were ready to take on new challenges. While summer programs required me to draw individuals into the Hurricane Island community, with this group, I worked to integrate the cultures of both communities, and I had fun seeing how that played out.

The theme for North Haven’s visit was survival. It’s also the theme of their first unit of the school year for all their subjects, from the books they read in literature, to their historical studies, to their art projects. It is a fun theme to tackle from a science and leadership perspective, especially with a group that is already cohesive and ready to work as a team. They were excited to tackle navigation, raft construction, fire building, and foraging for the next two days.

There's a keeper!

We started by working on our navigation skills. We checked out a bunch of different maps to figure out what they have in common, and then we became familiar with the 360 degrees of a compass to find and take bearings. All this was in preparation for a challenge on the south end of the island. We split into pairs and each group hid a treasure, and then wrote out the distances and directions to guide another group to the treasure. Groups traded multiple times so we had ample practice using compasses and following directions. I was impressed! The groups took the challenge seriously, trying to stump each other with multi-step instructions, yet they all persevered and worked together to ultimately uncover each hidden treasure.

Another survival-themed undertaking was a fun engineering project, a favorite among many of our programs: the raft challenge! Before getting started with the rafts, we all practiced four types of knots: the double half hitch, the clove hitch, the bowline, and the square knot, so we would know both how to tie them and the circumstances when they are useful. Then we headed up to the ice pond and split into two teams. Teams had access to ropes, plastic barrels, and bamboo poles. The goal was to make a raft that could transport the entire team across the pond, whether all students at once or in multiple trips was up to each team to decide. Teams worked furiously brainstorming, prototyping, and rejecting old designs, before launching the rafts into the pond.

The raft challenge was FUN. I enjoyed hearing the students’ different ideas and watching them construct multiple iterations, but what I enjoyed even more was seeing them in the water, determined to have their rafts make the trek. Neither group’s raft was structurally sound long enough to complete the challenge, but that didn’t stop the students from making sure the components of the raft made it across the pond. The students kicked, swam, and laughed, working together and having fun with some friendly competition.

Our group ROCKS!

We headed to dinner after a long, packed day, and I was pleasantly surprised by the students’ adventurous palates, their gratitude, and their readiness to jump in and help with dishes. Sometimes younger students feel comforted by simple foods, but this group went right ahead to try the sweet potato dumplings and the spinach, feta, and egg tart. They kept thanking our chefs Eric and Philip and gave rave reviews of the food thus far (there may have been a few not-so-subtle hints about hoping for bacon in the morning). The students then rotated through dish-washing stations, and they took pride in the job they were doing, nearly pushing each other aside to jump in and help. The North Haven group had arrived less than ten hours prior, and they were already proud to contribute to our community on Hurricane. Some of this probably comes from feeling a strong community at home, and some comes from recognizing the community on our island.

After dinner, we were back on the survival theme, collecting tinder, kindling, and fuel wood for our own campfire. After acknowledging that all fires need a spark, fuel, and oxygen, we were ready to put the academics aside for the night and focus on s'mores. With most groups that come to the island, campfires lead to singing, and North Haven was no exception! These students then shared all the songs they had been practicing at school, and they burned off what little energy they had left at the end of the day.

The next morning after breakfast (yes, there was bacon), we split into two groups for stations exploring survival from the food perspective. Fellow Science Educator Josh took students on a foraging hike, teaching about edible plants and their nutritional value, before tasting some goldenrod spruce tea on the trail.

North end explorers take on Gibbon's Point

The other half of the group joined Silas and me on a quick boat ride out to our kelp aquaculture site to take a different angle on survival. We considered how humans, especially in coastal populations, rely on the oceans for food sources, and aquaculture, or the cultivation of aquatic organisms, is a potential solution to our society’s food needs. After harvesting some kelp, and becoming experts on algae anatomy, we headed into the galley to prepare some kelp chips to accompany lunch!

Thinking about food was a great way to work up an appetite. After hearing rumors about a brick oven pizza lunch, some of our North Haven students suggested a chicken alfredo pizza, and Eric and Philip delivered. The kids loved how their suggestion made its way onto the menu, and I felt refreshed by their candid conversations and optimism as they had interacted with numerous staff members the past few days. Sitting outside together and milling about was a fun way for us all to close out the field trip. The survival theme was a welcome twist on our STEM programs. More importantly, the students embraced their time on the island and made positive impacts on our island community.

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Little scientists, BIG imaginations!

Guest blog post by Science Educator Josh Adrian

Video by CMG fellow Wilder Nicholson

The craze of the summer season has settled down for us as we slide back into our school programs. Our fall is already off to a roaring start, as Rachel and I had the challenge of putting together a program very different from the ones we have been running for the past two months.  We went from week-long programs with twelve middle and high school students on the island to a four hour program with 30 first and second graders!  The island was buzzing with their elementary energy. We literally lifted the students off of the Equinox.  Their voices started as nervous and antsy whispers, timidly sharing their favorite animals but within ten minutes we were all digging into a snack and giggling together as we heaped Nutella onto various vegetables and fruits.

Our morning began with a game called “Oh Deer!” It introduces resources and needs in a very simple way.  Students representing deer start on one side and students as resources on the other.  Both sides choose one of three symbols representing food, water, and shelter, and on the count of three, the deer turn to face the resources and run to the one matching the resource they selected.  We got everyone moving around playing Oh Deer! and comfortable for our next morning activity.

Afterwards, Rachel and I split the group and took the students to discover some of the homes and animals of the intertidal and terrestrial ecosystems on the island.  Building on our experiences as deer, the students discussed “needs” versus “wants” and the resources we need to survive.  We looked at different homes, such as webworms growing in the apple trees, dog whelks carrying their homes on their backs, and dragonflies and their various homes as they change from nymphs to adults.  Getting hands on was huge for our young students!  Seeing how impactful it was for them to connect what they had learned on their own adventures elsewhere with what we were showing them that day was awesome.  They asked questions about how the animals survived in their homes, shared stories of finding those homes nearby their own houses, and how their own human homes are suited for them to survive.

After lunch, we hiked to the south end of the island and gave the students piles of natural materials with which they could build their own animal homes. We assembled the students into small groups of 4, and each group selected their own animal from the island that they liked. They then worked together to construct a home that would best suit their animal of choice, considering all of the animals’ needs.  We toured the homes in a gallery walk fashion, and what a success!  The first and second graders did an incredibly thorough job considering the needs of the animals and what natural resources to use.  From squirrel homes built next to trees for easy access and with ample storage for food, to mink homes constructed using pre-existing structures, to bird nests considerately built the right size and including protection and insulation, the students covered all the bases.

After a fast day of fun, our program came to an end just as quickly as it started. On our hike back, the students were pointing out homes and familiar parts of the island discussed during our morning activities.  They absorbed an astounding amount given the total time we spent together, and translated it to their own field of understanding.  We suited the little naturalists with lifejackets and hefted them back aboard the boat to return and soon they were laughing at the sea spray and falling asleep after a long day of hiking.  What an excellent first day of school for the students, changing things up from their usual classroom!  We explored some exciting natural homes and the animals living in them, and it was a wonderful group of young minds to do it with.  It’s always an adventure when we change the parameters for our engagements with students that keep us on our toes. However, no matter the age, I am always impressed by the ideas and enthusiasm to learn the students bring!

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Enthusiasm for Exploration!

Guest blog post by Science Educator Robin Chernow

We recently wrapped up our summer program season with The Middle School Island Explorers. These rising 5th and 6th grade students, the youngest open enrollment group of the summer, brought an energy and a zeal for exploration of the island. The name “Island Explorers” was appropriate for these six students who explored many environments on the island. From checking out the island’s history, to examining tide pools and freshwater ponds, to investigating how scientific tools such as observation can help us understand the world around us, these students encompassed what it means to be “island explorers.”

Fun on the lobster boat

We started the week by talking about naturalists, and how observation is an incredibly important tool or skill for these field scientists. We brainstormed how our senses can help us make observations and how paying attention to something helps us notice the little details that often lead to more questions.

On our history hike on Day 1, the students kept noticing quarry-era (1870-1914) relics and artifacts, asking question after question as we hiked through the historical sites. Right off the bat, my Education intern Dana and I were impressed by their astute observations and excitement for learning. Every day we ventured to a new part of the island, and I continued to be amazed by the students’ observations.

These astute observations and the excitement for learning never faded away as the students explored the island all week. On Monday, fellow Science Educator Josh and I led the students on a Bug Quest, in which the students’ mission was to closely examine the anatomy of bugs in the field to determine whether or not they were insects. Later, we went to the intertidal zone near Two Bush Island for some low tide explorations. As students climbed over seaweed covered rocks and around shallow tide pools, their faces lit up with discovery upon finding numerous dog whelks, hermit crabs, limpets, sea urchins, tunicates, and other creatures. One day, Education Intern Michelle traversed the island’s trails with our group for a lesson on edible plants. Later in the week, the students led me to the wood sorrel and huckleberries so I could snack on them as well.

I love that my students took ownership over their experience on the island. They became young scientists by making observations, asking questions, and sharing what they had learned. I admire the curiosity of the young students from the Island Explorers group. Overall I have noticed that older students ask fewer questions than young students, perhaps because older students are afraid of seeming stupid for not knowing, or because they think they need to filter their thoughts. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed working with these younger students who are curious and inquisitive and who brought such an energy and excitement to the island.

Seaweed chefs make a game plan!

I felt refreshed by their enthusiasm across the board. This enthusiasm, coupled with a willingness to try new things, allowed our students to take on new challenges and embrace new experiences. They concocted culinary creations such as sea moss pudding and kelp chips (thanks to our chef Eric for sharing his expertise!). They eagerly measured lobsters to confirm whether they were large enough to keep. They trekked around the island with Science Educator Rachel and harvested pigment sources before designing their own naturally-dyed bandanas.  They learned about woodworking, constructing a small roof with our Facilities Assistant Silas. The students caught frogs in the ice pond and squeezed through “the crack.” One of my proudest moments was seeing them conquer the rock climbing facade, supporting each other as they pushed outside their comfort zones.

Focused belay team at the rock wall

By the end of the week, I was exhausted! The boundless energy of kids can be tiring; however, that same energy is also inspiring. I loved that they embraced new experiences and I was invigorated by the fact that these students had so fun much fun with the nature, science, and leadership opportunities on the island. This group of young middle school students capped off an incredible summer season and I feel so grateful to have shared the week of exploration with them.

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Empowerment through ecology: Young women scientists in the field

Guest blog post by Science Educator Rachel Kimpton

Many people are starting to recognize that there is a significant gender gap in STEM fields, and that women and gender nonbinary people are often underrepresented. Out on the island, our perspective on this is often skewed, as the majority of our staff are not only women, but women scientists, thus we tend to feel removed from the realities of sexism. During the week of August 7, my co-teacher Eliza and I had the incredible opportunity of working with 11 budding scientists who all, serendipitously, happened to be young women. I should emphasize that this program was not marketed as only for women, but that only women happened to enroll. I never had the opportunity to embark on a weeklong program away from home when I was young, and I certainly never gathered intentionally in an all-women space until my early twenties. Needless to say, I was beyond excited to get to know and grow with this group.

I had a great feeling about the group when they got off the boat, as they were immediately radiating enthusiasm. Eliza kept that strong energy going in a lively round of speed dating to get to know each other, and we realized right away that we had a lot of overlapping interests and goals. That first afternoon was easygoing and filled with hikes and getting ourselves oriented to the island. We ended the day with a fun evening exploration of the South End beach and intertidal zones, playing with a variety of ocean creatures and enjoyed our first sunset together after our walk to Two Bush Island.

First banded lobster!

We spent Monday getting into the mindset of field ecology and beginning our big projects for the week. Michelle, one of our education interns, showed us how to identify trees using a dichotomous key. We examined different leaf types together under the shade of an old apple tree and around the main campus, then took our skills to the trails on a tree walk. Later that afternoon, Eliza and I introduced one of the weeklong, overarching projects: to design, build, and install biofilters for two of our outhouses. During the previous week, the High School Sustainability students installed rain barrels to collect and provide water for outhouse sinks. Our Island Ecology students were tasked with making that greywater safe to reenter the soil by modifying the design of our own large constructed wetland, which filters greywater from the shower house and kitchen, to better suit a smaller volume. We actually had the opportunity to tour the wetland with its creator, Russell Martin. He happened to be visiting the island that day, and he explained the system, his experiences as one of the few people in Maine building such systems, and how natural environments, like wetlands or trees along river beds, function as natural filtration systems. We split up into two design teams and began our preliminary planning, then took a break to participate in one of Maine’s largest economies: lobstering! We went out on the boats with Oakley to haul traps and got a closer look at lobster biology and anatomy with Eliza in the lab. We ended our busy day with a relaxing evening of seaside stargazing and chats.

Looking at baby scallops on the dock

On Tuesday, we spent our morning working with more of our staff’s amazing women scientists. Bailey and Jessie from the research team introduced us to the Island’s ongoing scallop research project, and we helped collect data by measuring shells of the tiny, adorable baby scallops and the larger adults. The research team also pulled us into designing and planning for our upcoming scallop aquaculture project on the island. This was particularly exciting because the research team will incorporate some of the ideas and designs we generated during this session into the final plans! After spending time with the scallops, Robin, one of our educators, took us on a walking geology lesson to give us context for why the island ROCKS and the geologic history of the area. Later in the afternoon, we built on this geologic knowledge with Josh, another educator, by taking soil samples from different parts of the island and testing soil stability using erosion and glomalin as indicators. Josh continued to hang out with us after dinner on an evening hiking in the dark, learning about the evolution of the human eye and putting our rhodopsin to the test by successfully navigating the island’s rocky terrain with only our eyes - and no flashlights!

Preparing materials for the biofilters

We gathered Wednesday morning to finalize our biofilter designs and begin construction with Silas and Rachael, two of our facilities staff. We managed to get our biofilters almost finished before the rain came in the afternoon, but that didn’t stop us from having fun! Rachael gave us a tour of our sustainable systems around the island, and we discussed the many important decomposers active in our lives and in these systems, such as the bacteria turning our food scraps and bathroom waste into soil and the worms in the vermicompost bin. Once the rain really started to come down, Rachael helped us with our own anaerobic decomposition project - fermenting milk into yogurt! We ended the day with Stef, our communications intern, as she led us in a nature writing lesson. Stef gave us a short, enjoyable piece by the activist and author Terry Tempest Williams to read. This gave us the opportunity to examine arguments from multiple perspectives and pursue science in an artistic way.

This intersection of science and art would carry through the rest of the week. Thursday was one of the best days during the week, loved by students and staff alike. In order to prepare for our other big project - a foraged feast - we spent the morning practicing our foraging skills, but not for edible purposes - to instead create natural dyes! It was fun to experiment with different plants, dyeing processes, and ways to apply and alter dyes. We made a big fire down on the South End and created beautifully dyed bandanas with eco bundles, shibori techniques, and smashing plants directly onto the surface. After lunch, we pushed ourselves and supported one another during a warm afternoon session of rock climbing. The rest of the day was so relaxing and fun - swimming, a sunset hike, a huge outdoor picnic featuring a lobster boil with the lobsters we caught(!), and stargazing with Michelle.

It was incredible how fast the week flew by! On Friday morning, we split up into our design teams to finish building and installing our biofilters with Silas and to row out on the ocean with Oakley. In order to fully appreciate the foraged feast we were to prepare that afternoon, I (Rachel) led an investigation into the organisms that make the majority of our food on the planet possible: pollinators! We looked at preserved pollinator specimens from the island under microscopes and hand lenses, including moths, butterflies, flies, beetles, and different types of bees. Bees are a personal favorite insect of mine and I was extremely excited to share, but not as excited as one of our students, Lindsay, who is learning beekeeping as her senior project! Sam, the director of the Center for Science and Leadership, let us take apart and analyze his collapsed honeybee hive. After lunch we set out to collect edibles growing wild around the island and in our gardens, which we prepared and shared together with staff. Eliza and I helped put together the menu, which featured a rhubarb lemonade, fried green tomatoes, herbed goat cheese filled squash blossoms, and a giant garden salad. We spent our final night on the island around a campfire, with s’mores, ghost stories, and music by staff and our student Kayla.

Through the crack

After a few rainy days on the island, the weather cleared up and we were able to enjoy a beautiful morning together, reflecting on the week and going on a final, silent hike around the island. Although we spent each morning during the week coming together to reflect on our experiences and desires, that final morning meeting was especially important and powerful. These young women had the chance to meet, speak with, and work alongside other women scientists on the island throughout the week in many different capacities, including data collection, experimentation, and bioengineering. In our final meeting, these women voiced that their experiences throughout the week had reinvigorated their passion for science, allowed them to discover their self-confidence in pursuing careers in fields that are often male-dominated, and, most importantly, that they believed in themselves more than ever before.

One of the most magical moments that I have witnessed during my summer here on Hurricane is the moment when strangers suddenly become friends. The obstacles or divisions we encounter in the world, like the artificial divide between science and art or the obstacles that come along with being a woman scientist, disappeared when entering this space. When I reflect on this week, I think of the huge strides these young women made in developing their leadership skills, challenging themselves, facing and challenging gender stereotypes, and learning how to encourage and support their peers.

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A week of 'stoke'

Guest blog post by Science Educator Josh Adrian

Stoke: to poke, stir up, and feed (a fire)

Learning about lobstering the hands-on way

When thinking about the students that came to the High School Sustainability program we recently offered, I’m struck by the level of stoke that each one brought.  It was a busy week.  A really busy week. Through the whole thing they stuck with it, and so enthusiastically too!  The definition of stoke is to poke, stir up, and feed (a fire).  Looking at the fire as our enthusiasm for sustainability, the stoke level was high.  Everyone came with ideas and energy, ready to share and to learn.  They pushed each other, Michelle and I as well!

One of the rain barrel groups posing at their install locale

Sunday was all about getting acquainted with the island and becoming familiar with it’s sustainable systems. From there, the students accomplished an outrageous amount through the week!  On Monday we partnered with Rozalia Project to clean marine debris from a beach on Greens Island, sussed out some ideas for reducing marine debris, and prototyped those ideas with a film crew, 3D printer, and plenty of staff to help develop ideas.  Tuesday we designed and built two rain barrels that we installed, and in the afternoon learned about how solar energy and photovoltaic systems work.  Wednesday saw the realization of the two photovoltaic systems the students designed, and we installed them in the cabins.  That morning we had a town hall style debate over what sort of sustainable energy our pretend island’s population needed to continue growing.  By Thursday we were ready for a little break…  …so we went rock climbing.  After rock climbing, we used the afternoon to learn about sustainable design and discussed design options for a new field station on the island that would have the least environmental impact.  And finally, Friday was sustainable food day!  Between foraging to make naturally dyed bandanas, lobstering, learning about Maine fisheries, and harvesting wild edibles to cook a meal for everyone, the students had all sorts of ways to engage with island food sustainability! Saturday was no easy day either! We went rowing, swimming, and circled up to share the ways we would take what we learned into our communities and world.

So.  Like I said.  A really busy week.

I’m exhausted just from typing that all out and reading it.

But.

These students blew me away at how they kept at it all week!  From the first conversations about sustainability to the final circle on Saturday morning, every one of them brought so much individual enthusiasm with them.  They all came from such different places, and used everything they knew about sustainability and had learned about in the past to teach each other, and to fuel what they learned in the days here.

 Part of our crew standing next to their photovoltaic install

At any given point I would not have blamed them at all if they had just flopped on the ground and hollered “JOSH AND MICHELLE, YOU GUYS GOTTA SLOW DOWN.”  But they kept at it, and they accomplished so much this week!  We now have two beautiful rain barrels on two of the outhouses, and two of the visitor cabins are electrified with lights and a charging station powered by the solar energy they installed!

Adding final touches to the dishes cooked by the students Friday night

To learn with such an invigorating bunch of young adults was a spectacular way to finish off my open enrollment programming for the summer.  The state of our planet with regard to sustainability is a frustrating one to confront at times, but with all the ideas and conversations that happened during our week, I’m feeling pretty good about the situation.  Not only did we share a lot of previous knowledge with each other, and learn about new ideas and concepts together, but every student finished off the week with some excellent thoughts about taking what they learned and implementing it on an individual level, a community level, and a national/international level.  I challenged the students to go beyond just having a week of thinking about sustainability, and carrying the knowledge they had gained forwards.  It’s so important to share what we learn, not just through our individual actions, but to grow community through our knowledge.  These students all responded to the challenge and came up with fantastic ways to spread ideas and actionable plans revolving around composting, photovoltaic systems, rain barrels, localizing food, and other sustainable practices.  Hearing them share out those ideas was epic.  The stoke was real the week of High School Sustainability.  Thanks guys, what an amazing seven days.

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