Students share creative maps they drew showing their journey to Hurricane Island
Students work with Josie to come up with words and attitudes they want to keep on and off Hurricane during their program
From May 27-29 we were joined by 10 enthusiastic middle school students from Nobleboro, ME for a program filled with rock climbing, hiking, exploring the intertidal, and field journaling. Josie and I had a chance to visit students in the classroom before they came out to Hurricane Island. This meant we could answer questions about the trip and work with students to identify ways to make their group experience stronger and how they could positively contribute to Hurricane's community. Finally, we helped students design their own field journals and then went out on the school's beautiful nature trail to make some plant observations and drawings.
Students arrived on Hurricane mid-morning on the 27th, so they had time to move into the bunkhouse and go on a fun island perimeter hike before lunch. After lunch we spent time learning about the sustainable systems that Hurricane uses to operate our campus. Students learned how solar panels work, where our water comes from, and how we use food compost in our island gardens. Finally, we talked about how maps can be a tool to help communicate information and then students got creative and drew maps depicting the trip to Hurricane.
Learning to rock climb and belay requires good communication and trust
On the second day we spent the whole morning rock-climbing! Students learned how to both climb rocks and belay each other, how to tie a figure-eight retrace knot, and how to communicate and climb safely.
Low tide happened just after lunch, so we explored between Hurricane and Two-Bush Island where we found all sorts of cool and slimy critters. We even helped clean off the mooring balls to find extra long sugar kelp and a spider crab!
Some other highlights from the trip included learning about Maine's lobster industry and going on a botany hike to learn some of the forest wildflowers and trees that are commonly seen on hikes in Maine. We had a great time adventuring with these students, and we hope to see them out on Hurricane again soon!
