Island Updates

Science as service: learning through gardening

Guest blog post by Science Educator Rachel Kimpton

On September 24, eight high school students from Fryeburg Academy’s AP Environmental Science course journeyed to Hurricane for a weekend trip. Their teacher, John Urgese, tries to schedule experiential field trips at the beginning of the school year so that his classroom lessons can build on those real world experiences of science in action. Trying to plan a meaningful lesson for such a compact amount of time is quite challenging, since that time also includes students adjusting to their new surroundings and comprehend their new “classroom.” To best utilize their short trip, I designed an applied science lesson that would function as a community service project: redesigning one of our garden plots into a pollinator garden.

I have been looking for the perfect opportunity to teach with gardening since I came out to the island in June. My own graduate research focused on gardening as a teaching method, as gardens themselves are a fascinating intersection of art, science, history, and culture all at once, to name only a few disciplines. I’m personally interested in gardens as classrooms because the act of gardening makes textbook concepts tangible, accessible, and delightful.

Fryeburg’s trip was built around phenology, the study of cyclic changes over time, or as the National Phenology Network so aptly describes, the study of “Nature’s calendar - when cherry trees bloom, when a robin builds its nest, and when leaves turn color in the fall.” The goal of getting their hands literally in the dirt was to directly apply their understandings of species interdependence and various changes that occur over the course of an organism’s life. We discussed how animals, plants, bacteria, and even fungi all interact and depend on each other in order to survive, and how small changes in climate can have drastic impacts.

It’s not exactly possible to study all of the changes that occur throughout the seasons or throughout an organism’s entire life just within 24 hours. Instead, we examined the snapshot of changes happening within the first few days of autumn. We went for a hike around the perimeter of the island, taking note of and sketching the various phenophases of plants, animals, and fungi that we saw along the way. The beginning of autumn is actually a fantastic time to discuss cyclic changes: the leaves on our few deciduous trees are starting to change and fall, flowers are blooming for the last time or releasing their seeds, and the sun makes its way quickly across the sky to set late in the afternoon.

One of the easiest interdependence networks to think about takes place within a garden and is one with which we are all familiar: FOOD! Many different living and nonliving factors contribute to the food that ends up on our plates every day. We concluded our hike at one of the island’s garden plots to harvest plants in their “reproductive” phenophases so that we could enjoy them for dinner. We made a huge delicious salad, a buttery roasted spaghetti squash, and fresh pressed apple cider with Hurricane’s own apples (!), all of which were perfect accompaniments for our sunset picnic.

The next morning, we reviewed the various organisms we spotted on our hike around the island. We also noted a very important organism we noticed in the process of gathering some of the season’s last tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and leafy greens the previous day: bumblebees! Bumblebees are part of a larger group of organisms known as pollinators, which make more than 75% of the world’s food possible. However, many manmade factors threaten pollinator species with extinction, including intensive industrial agricultural practices and widespread pesticide use. The purpose of our garden design was to provide food for the island’s pollinators with plants that would bloom throughout the year. 

The students cross-referenced regional pollinator guides with seed packets to create an excellent, diverse planting plan with staggered blooms. With shovels in hand, we took a short hike to the south end of the island to measure the proposed plot. I’ve had my eye on this plot since June, as a lot of weeds and a very proud catmint plant dominate (and underutilize) the space. Once we returned to the classroom, the students broke up into groups to finish our seasonal planting plan, and to create a garden map of the plants they intended to use based on a sample map developed by the Portland Pollinator Partnership.

What can we actually accomplish during a 24 hour trip that resonates with the students? It turns out quite a lot! It was exciting to watch students with different levels of gardening experience and cultural knowledge collaborate to create such a comprehensive plan. The students had a blast experiencing environmental biology so directly, from our encounters with different organisms around the island to tasting the bounty that a long growing season provides (with help from our amazing pollinators)!. This program ended up being a dream come true for me, as I have spent the last couple years of my life examining the power of learning that exists within gardens. Although we didn’t actually get seeds in the ground, this was an incredible first step towards making the island more pollinator friendly while participating in larger discourses of sustainability.

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Crossing Pathways

Guest blog post by Science Educators Robin Chernow and Rachel Kimpton

Reaching for it!

How do we teach leadership? Is this a skill that can be taught? These are questions we have tumbled around throughout the summer with each group that has visited. We recently hosted students from Deer Isle- Stonington, our last high school program of the season. Their high school features a unique “Pathways” program, in which students choose to focus on either arts or marine science and take classes that relate specifically to those topics. The Pathways program also emphasizes student self-directedness and collaboration among their peers. As educators, Rachel and I were really excited that a school provides such an opportunity for students to be the drivers of their own education. The majority of these students were freshmen and just beginning their own Pathways. Their trip to Hurricane was an opportunity to build cohesiveness within and across the Pathways groups. When they stepped off the boat, we could tell these students were ready to make the most of their brief, two day visit to Hurricane Island.

Rock climbing was the first team challenge. Students rotated through the roles of climber, belayer, and backup belayer. Even in the moments when students were not actively belaying or climbing, they encouraged their peers and provided suggestions regarding route options. Some students reached the top of the quarry facade numerous times on numerous courses, and all students made it to the first ledge of the rock wall, a group goal that was set midway through the climbing session. For me, the most exciting part of the climbing session was seeing students tackle the first ledge to meet the group goal, and then continue up the wall of their own accord. Another standout moment was seeing one student make it up a tricky ledge, after nearly 20 minutes of struggling, exploring, and thoughts of quitting. That student overcame the challenging part of the wall thanks to his own persistence and patience, coupled with encouragement from his peers. Later, this same climber verbally guided another student over the wall, sharing route options and confidence in his peer.

Warm up: flipping a tarp over without stepping off!

After a snack break and a tarp flip challenge as a warm-up, we set out for some fun team-building challenges. “Research rover” is a competition in which teams direct their blindfolded teammate (the rover) towards an object (marine debris). Each round is more difficult as fewer commands are permitted. “Looker, runner, builder” is a game in which teams of three delegate themselves to one of the three roles. The goal is to construct a statue that replicates one that only the “looker” can see. The runner relays instructions from the “looker” to the “builder” regarding the construction of the statue. These were a few of the games that brought out great moments of laughter and growth, ultimately preparing students for their bigger challenge the next morning.

Final touches before launching the raft

On their second and final day, Pathways students were ready for the task with the highest stakes: the raft challenge! Not only were Arts Pathways students competing against their Marine Pathways counterparts, but their teachers were observing their collaboration styles to give them feedback. Both Hurricane staff and program participants alike love this challenge; it’s a great opportunity for students to practice design, real time problem-solving, working as a team, and incorporating individual strengths, while making a literal splash and learning from failure. Each team made its way across the ice pond one way or another. We celebrated their perseverance and hard work by jumping off the pier into the ocean at low tide.

With each group that comes to the island, we aim to ensure that the trip is as meaningful as possible. This becomes challenging with school programs that are only 24 hours long, especially when we are accustomed to delivering week-long programs in the summer. As Rachel addressed in a previous blog about working with Fryeburg [hyperlink?], how much can we accomplish in 24 hours? We think part of the success of our programs is the power of the place the students are in. Even though these students live on an island, Hurricane permits them to escape from phones and the goings on at school, home, or even at a job in order to really focus on their personal and group goals. For Pathways students, their time on Hurricane Island allowed them to contextualize their learning within their chosen “path” within the journey ahead. It’s always exciting to be with students at the beginning of their school year as they are in the process of setting intentions and reflecting on who they want to become. We love that students and teachers continue to choose Hurricane as their site for such growth!

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Putting the pieces together

Guest blog post by Science Educator Robin Chernow

Sometimes, for Hurricane Island programs to occur, lots of little magical pieces need to come together. This is an idea that Phoebe, our Director of Marketing and Outreach, has expressed several times this season. Sometimes that “magic” is serendipitous, but most of the time it is the result of collaboration, open-mindedness, and hard work.

For Northeast High’s recent visit, the magic happened. For the third year in a row, a new group of students came all the way from Philadelphia, PA, for a five night program. Fellow Science Educator, Josh, and I had the pleasure of working with the twenty students and three teachers who made their way to Hurricane Island for a week of field science research projects.

The magic started with their introduction to Hurricane. Three years ago, a Northeast High (NEHS) teacher won a raffle to attend the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference. At that conference, she met Hurricane Island staff members and learned about the science programming offered on the island. It seemed like a great fit for her senior International Baccalaureate (IB) students, and the partnership was born! Coincidentally, I also found out about Hurricane Island at a NSTA conference, last year when I was living in Philadelphia. It seemed fitting that both the NEHS group and I are from Philadelphia AND found out about Hurricane via the same conference.

Little green crab in the quadrat

After finding out about Hurricane, NEHS students and their teacher raised money to cover expenses, including programming and lodging on the island, plus their transportation from Pennsylvania. Their hard work fund-raising, from gofundme pages to candy sales, was a crucial step in making the trip possible. 

Then it was a matter of getting them here. A lot of our students come from schools within Maine or nearby New England states so when our participants make the trek from several states away, the program feels all the more special. The NEHS students arrived at school on a Sunday morning, earlier than the time they would arrive on a regular school day. They were on the road by 7 am, embarking on their 9 hour bus ride from Philadelphia to Rockland, Maine. Making it to Rockland by 4 pm was a feat in and of itself, but the last leg of the journey, a 50 minute chartered boat ride, was the most impressive. Some of the students had never been on a boat and had considered not participating in the trip because they were nervous about the boat ride. Fortunately, the students faced their fears (and were relieved to step onto the solid granite ground of the island).

On Monday, the NEHS students had other opportunities to face fears on a night hike - without headlamps. Josh led the hike and expressed that he loves night hikes because it is rare to experience full darkness, especially when you live in a city. Our students could relate, and even though some were nervous, they were wowed by the stars, their trust in each other, and their ability to see more than they expected (thanks to rhodopsin!). We walked away from the night hike recognizing that we had just experienced something special.

Rainy day plankton tow

Monday and Tuesday included numerous other mini adventures. Before students selected their own research questions to investigate, we spent a couple days exploring the island and finding topics of interest. One of our overview sessions was at the ice pond, where students made observations and took freshwater samples for testing. We also looked (briefly) in the microscope and managed to identify several macroinvertebrates, from annelids to insect larvae! Cool!

Tuesday also included a lobstering session with Oakley. He showed off his lobster traps, teaching about lobster anatomy and life cycles, in addition to discussing the lobster industry. Several students relished the opportunity to hold a crustacean for the first time. Via our chef Eric, we learned the lesson that you can only eat what you catch, so we teamed up to share lobsters for dinner.

Sit spots were another special component of the week. One student appreciated that ““Sit spots were very quiet and made me feel at peace.”  Sit spot is a time when we go outside and all sit independently, making observations about the natural world around us.

Pipetting pros!

Making observations leads to asking questions. The next challenge for the NEHS students was to come up with awesome questions, and then figure out how to answer them. After much brainstorming and streamlining, the research projects were fueled by exciting questions: Which mosses retain the most water? Do green crabs have a habitat preference? How does soil composition vary around the island? What is the difference between photosynthesis rates of deciduous and coniferous trees? Do plankton populations vary at high and low tide? This variety of questions requires a variety of tools and data collection methods. Students employed oxygen probes, plankton tow nets, quadrats, and balances, in addition to thinking critically and collaborating. I am grateful to work at a science institution that provides (and encourages!) opportunities for field work, not solely lab work. I loved seeing all the science in action all over the island!

The data collection and analysis set students up for their final presentations – what a way to culminate an awesome week! The students were excited to share their findings, even despite some nerves about public speaking. I loved seeing their enthusiasm for their projects, and was inspired by the sheer number of possibilities for future investigations.

Group volleyball at dusk

Beyond experiencing science while they were here on Hurricane Island, the students experienced our community, and created community for each other. Josh and I introduced “Rose, bud, thorn” to the NEHS group during our campfire late in the week. Rose, bud, thorn is a way for every member of a group to share something meaningful. The “rose” is the highlight of the day (or week), the “bud” is what you are looking forward to, and the “thorn” is a low point, or obstacle that has been overcome. The NEHS group embraced rose, bud, thorn and shared openly about their personal experiences. Prior to the trip, most students knew at least a few people in the group, but by the end of the week, the group was more cohesive. Numerous students commented on group cohesion and new friendships as a “rose,” and others embraced vulnerability while sharing their “thorns.” One student reflected that being open-minded and sharing roses, buds, and thorns allowed “everyone to connect and feel like part of a great community.” Strength in community is a special component of the trip that students can bring with them as they return to school.

THANK YOU to the Northeast students and staff who embraced new experiences and worked hard to make the most of the week on Hurricane Island. I learned a lot from you and I enjoyed the week of programming. I commented on only a handful of the magical pieces that brought life and energy to the week. I felt the magic, and I hope you did too.

 

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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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