Watershed School: Challenge by Choice

Guest blog post by Science Educator Dana Colihan

Some laughs at the rock wall

Earlier this fall, Watershed School came to Hurricane Island for their orientation trip. Watershed is a small alternative high school that centers innovative teaching and project based learning. While at Hurricane Island, Watershed focused on growing their community and team building exercises. As an entire high school, students went rock climbing, rowing, built rafts, as well as participated in intentional debriefing time together. During these activities, Watershed faculty and students explored one of Hurricane Island’s core values, “challenge by choice.”

Student's belaying their classmates

Our Lead Science Educator, Robin Chernow, has a favorite quote, “A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” Just outside your comfort zone is your growth zone, but if you don’t leave your comfort zone, you will never be challenged to grow. We believe that we should lean into our discomfort. Being uncomfortable is usually a sign that learning is occurring! However, just beyond your growth zone is your danger zone. At Hurricane Island, we will not put students into their danger zones. We will never make a student do something they don’t want to do, but will encourage them to challenge themselves. What’s really important to realize about this is that we all have different comfort, growth, and danger zones. Some students can climb all the way up to the top of the rockwall unphased, but for others stepping on a boat and staying on an island is difficult.

A wave from the top!

On their last night at Hurricane Island, Watershed faculty led a reflection at a campfire about these concepts. Students and staff shared something that had been challenging for them on the trip, a way that they could push themselves tomorrow, and how they would bring these strategies back to Watershed. A few students shared that physically being on an island and certain activities really put them outside of their comfort zones. A couple other students said that some of the activities weren’t challenging for them, but being at a new school or trying to make new friends pushed them a lot. It was powerful to see so many students openly share about things that were difficult for them. I was impressed at the level to which these students could openly talk about their feelings. It is an important skill that not everyone has and not all schools teach.

Leap of faith!

The next day, students who hadn’t felt particularly challenged yet pushed themselves out of their comfort zones in different ways. Some decided to take the polar plunge, while others sat with new people at breakfast. Throughout this program, I enjoyed seeing how Watershed engaged with this concept so intentionally. As individuals challenged themselves personally with the support of their peers, the school grew together as a community.

A Newsworthy Visit

I remember the last Earth Day vividly. On Saturday April 22, 2017, Rockland faced heavy rains and cold, 40 degree F weather. April 22 was also the date of Hurricane’s Annual Free Teacher Day.  Due to the unpleasant weather and the imminent early morning boat ride across the bay, my colleagues Jenn, Phoebe, and I were not expecting a big turnout. However, we met an eager crew of teachers in our Rockland office, before a wet boat ride out to Hurricane.

Two of those teachers had traveled all the way from Lexington, Massachusetts. Paula and Helena are teachers at the Waldorf School of Lexington and they wanted to scope out Hurricane as a field trip destination for their 7th and 8th grade students.

Waldorf School of Lexington students explore Hurricane's intertidal zone.

This fall, we welcomed 30 students from the Massachusetts school. With an emphasis on getting to know classmates, being outside of one’s comfort zone, and hands-on science, the program featured many Hurricane favorites: intertidal explorations, the raft-building challenge, rock climbing, lobstering, scallop aquaculture, campfire, and hiking to the crack.

Checking out critters!

With so many “classics” during the program, and so many energetic, open-minded middle school students, these four days were an opportune time span for a visit from CBS 13 news reporter Adam Epstein. He and his cameraman visited Hurricane for a day, interviewing staff, students, and teachers alike, aiming to share the happenings of Hurricane Island with a public audience. The final film aired on an evening newscast on Thursday Sept 14, and can be viewed online here.

Fun at the climbing wall!

Thank you to the Waldorf School of Lexington teachers and students for being a part of our Hurricane community, and for helping us share that with others.

North Haven Community School: Learning to live by

Guest blog post by Science Educator Dana Colihan

Austin and Irene make apple cider

Last Week, 11 high school students from North Haven Community School journeyed to Hurricane Island for their fall expedition. This felt like a particularly important group to have because these students live so locally. Many have grown up on North Haven, have visited Hurricane Island before and will come here again. This year’s class has also three international students and a few new magnet students from the mainland. It was a joy to share the island with this mix of students who were both returning here and experiencing the island for the first time.

With this group, our activities had elevated significance and connections beyond our shores. The place based education that we teach on Hurricane was not confined to this island, but were pieces of knowledge these students could bring back home with them.

Students strategize the raft challenge

The most memorable example of this was teaching the students about the scallop aquaculture research occurring on the island. If climate change continues to warm the Gulf of Maine, many fisherman are afraid lobsters will move further north and to deeper waters in search of colder temperatures. People are looking to aquaculture as an alternative or addition to lobstering. Still using the ocean, it could be a more controlled and sustainable option.

Tyrese and Arnd belaying at the rock wall

To grow scallops on Hurricane Island, we deploy spat bags to harvest them in their planktonic form. Upon showing the spat bags to the students, one joked, “Hey, can I take one of those home with me?” Another was excited to see our aquaculture equipment in action, having already done a lot of research about scallop aquaculture techniques himself. Both of these students have grown up lobstering and come from six and seventh generation lobstering families. If they are already interested in this process in high school, there is hope that they could be growing their own scallops in a few years! While it can be tricky to get a license, our Research Technician Bailey Moritz was able to connect them with additional information about the process.

Working with these students reminded me of the value of doing placed based education with people connected to place. It is important to share this island with individuals who have never been to Maine or an island before. It is sometimes even more meaningful to share it with communities who live a just a stone's throw away.

Fryeburg Academy: Jumping into Hurricane!

Guest blog post by Science Educator Dana Colihan

Fryeburg Academy on their last morning!

This past weekend, seven students from Fryeburg Academy’s AP Environmental Science class traveled to Hurricane Island. This is Fryeburg’s third trip to the island with their teacher John Urgese, who brings a new group of students every year. The group consisted of two local students from Maine and five international students from China.

The crew landed on Hurricane Island on Saturday afternoon. Despite being late September, it was a hot day, and one of the first questions I received in the welcome circle was if we had any extra swimsuits. I was delighted to hear that a few of the students still wanted to brave our chilly waters and take the swim test. Rustling up a few extra trunks, four of the students decided to jump in after lunch.

Using stadia rods in the field

I grew up a water rat. I grew up with a penchant for flinging myself off of piers and into icy waters. Rivers, ponds, and lakes were fine, but nothing quite satisfied this urge like jumping into the ocean in Maine. My mom would always yell, “one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four… to… go!” At which point, I would make the plunge. It’s a ditty I have brought with me to Hurricane Island, and enjoy sharing with our programs. As I stood on the pier holding our bright orange life-ring, I encouraged students by counting down, “One for the money! Two for the show! Three to get ready! And four to go!”

Jumping in goes against your instincts. The water is cold and wet, and the jump can be far. And yet for many, it’s an exhilarating thrill that feels so right. One of the students in particular, Ricky, after a couple jumps started to shiver, but kept wanting to go again.

Exploring on Gibbons Point

All of the students from Fryeburg Academy leapt into their time on Hurricane Island. While the group was only able to be here for 24 hours, we effectively utilized our time together. We went swimming, took a history hike, had a campfire, walked the perimeter trail, learned about climate change’s effects on our oceans, as well as how to use stadia rods to measure sea level rise in the field. It was a joy to have this group of engaged and inquisitive students who jumped right in to their time on Hurricane Island, both literally and figuratively.

All Hands - Proctor Academy's Ocean Classroom

Guest blog post by Science Educator Isabelle Holt

A student stands and uses his raft as a paddle board.

The students from Proctor Academy’s 2017 Ocean Classroom expedition came to Hurricane this past week to spend some time doing all-hands activities as well as building watch pride, before setting off for their term-long voyage aboard the Roseway.  Proctor Academy partners with World Ocean School to give students the unique experience of not only learning marine science, literature, history, and navigation, but also allowing students to be active working members of the Roseway crew. 

Unity and trust in one another are vital to the successful operation of any sailing vessel and this is what we aimed to build while the Proctor students were here on Hurricane.  Proctor’s time on Hurricane is one of the few times that the whole group of students gets to spend quality time together while rotating through a slate of classic Hurricane Island activities and the call and response of ‘all hands’ rang out across the island whenever the attention of the entire crew was required.

Students from C watch stand by as their watch-mates make the crossing

The torrential rain, the effects of Hurricane Jose, did not deter us from getting out into the intertidal zone. This was the only time that these students will get to interact with the rocky intertidal environment as all of the science they will be doing aboard Roseway will be offshore. While on Hurricane, we encouraged students to start thinking about data and how different kinds of data are useful for different things through both collecting sea surface data as well as data on marine debris. After doing an extensive marine debris cleanup, each watch used the data collected to help them brainstorm a couple of solutions to the massive marine debris problem our oceans are facing. Some solution highlights included making cigarette filters out of biodegradable mushroom mycelium and inventing a underwater ocean WALL-E to compact trash bricks that could be used as sustainable building materials.

Each watch employs a different technique for getting across the pond

Students lobstered, squeezed through ‘the cracks,’ geologic formations caused by freezing water splitting granite boulders apart, enjoyed reflective sit-spots, rowed the gigs, and learned about all of the fabulous research occurring here on Hurricane. A crowd favorite was the raft challenge, where each watch of seven people was responsible for building a raft that could carry them across the ice pond and back without anyone falling into the drink. While only one team was successful this year, a good time was had by all and each watch learned how to work together more effectively moving forward.

Students renegotiate after disaster has struck their raft

We wish the Roseway fair winds and following seas as they set off on their journey. If you want to follow the progress of the 2017 expedition and all that these talented and engaging students are doing click here!

Under Pressure: Hurricane Island Cider Pressing with Ocean Passages

Guest blog post by Science Educator Isabelle Holt

Students reach to gather apples along what used to be the main street of the Hurricane Island quarry town.

We had Ocean Passages’ gap year students out on Hurricane for the weekend. This is the beginning of a semester-long adventure for these six students, during which they will be sailing down the East Coast to Cuba. Before setting off on the Harvey Gamage,  the Ocean Passages students got a taste of what living in a small, intentional, community feels like through their time on Hurricane.

Fall has arrived on Hurricane Island, with its thick fogs, and longer, colder nights. With the fall comes a time honored, New England tradition: apple cider pressing. We frequently incorporate foraging for edible plants on the island into our programming. As fall has brought a scarcity of wild edibles we have turned our attention to the ripening apples on the trees that are most likely descendants of those left behind by the quarrymen when they left the island more than 100 years ago.

Students operate the cider press!

We gathered two milk crates worth of apples from the trees along Main Street to press in our very own Sam Hallowell's antique cider press. A cider press is the perfect example of how a complex system can be made by combining a few simple mechanical parts. The apples were fed one-by-one into the fruit grinder, an example of a wheel and axle, until the barrel below was full. The pomace (the ground apples) were then moved to the actual press portion of the apparatus, which is functionally just a giant screw that places pressure on the apples themselves, where the Ocean Passages students cranked with gusto. As pressure was applied via the screw mechanism, the inclined plane of the bottom of the press allowed the freshly squeezed juice to flow through a filter and into our pitchers. 

Not only was this a lesson in simple machinery, this was the first time most of the students had made their own apple cider and the fruits of their labors were enjoyed by the whole Hurricane community. 

Taking a breather during an island perimeter hike to commune with the granite and take in the views.

Hurricane Island and Hurricane Harvey--High School Marine Biology learns about Climate Change

Guest blog post by Science Educator Dana Colihan

This year High School Marine Biology set out to do what no program has ever done before--assess the effect of sea level rise on Hurricane Island.

HSMB students taking a break from their work at Sandy Beach

What does Climate Change have to do with Marine Biology? Well, a good heckuva lot. With increasing global temperatures, seas are warming and rising at an exponential rate. NOAA explains the two major causes of sea level rise are the melting of land glaciers and thermal expansion of the oceans. Because water has a higher heat capacity than air, the oceans are absorbing 80 - 90 % of heat from global warming. Warming waters are particularly concerning for Maine’s lobstering industry, potentially driving lobsters further north in search of colder temperatures. Increasing CO2 is also causing ocean acidification. This is concerning for crustaceans, which will have less calcium carbonate available for them to build their shells. While some species might not feel the effects of this for years to come, others have already experienced ocean acidification. The first physical evidence of this was reported in 2012 in the Antarctic with the observation of sea butterflies shells’ dissolving.

High School Marine Biology began their week on Hurricane Island learning about these concepts surrounding the effects of climate change on our oceans. With this knowledge under our belt, we sought to address how climate change could affect Hurricane Island. Using stadia rods, we went to three different sites around the island to map the distance of shoreline lost with two meters of sea level rise. Looking at Valley Cove, two meters of sea level rise would be enough to submerge the perimeter trail. High School Marine Biology calculated that Hurricane Island wouldn’t experience this for another 909 years using the current average rate of sea-level rise in Maine at 2.2 mm/yr. However, using the EPA’s high estimate of future predicted sea level rise, 29 mm/year, the Valley Cove perimeter trail would be submerged in just 69 years.

HSMB students ready to collect data with stadia rods and quadrats

It is important to put this in perspective. While Hurricane Island might not experience extreme shoreline lost anywhere from 69 to 909 years, different communities around the United States are already experiencing the effects of climate change today. High School Marine Biology looked at case studies of a Inupiaq village in Alaska, the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw people on Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana, the Wabanaki Confederacy in Maine, as well as communities in Miami, Florida. Many indigenous communities have already been forced to leave their homes and relocate because of sea level rise, and they stand to experience a disproportionate burden of the effects of climate change. In this, High School Marine Biology learned about the injustices of climate change and about concepts of climate justice, the equitable distribution of the burdens of global warming and appropriate involvement of people being affected by climate change in the decision making process.

Focusing on climate change has felt particularly pertinent since the devastation of Hurricane Harvey and Irma. Michael E Mann, a professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University, argues in his article in the Guardian, that while climate change did not “cause” Hurricane Harvey, climate change exacerbated the damage of the storm.

Students in action in the field!

Climate justice issues are present here too. Dr. Robert Bullard, known as the father of environmental justice, explains in an interview on Democracy Now! that communities of color in Houston have been unequally affected by Hurricane Harvey and climate change. He explains, “…the best predictor of health and well-being in our society, and including Houston, is ZIP Code… Houston’s people of color communities historically have borne the burden for environmental pollution, and also the impact of flooding…this flood in Houston is exacerbating existing disparities…” Dr. Bullard continues, arguing that beyond the flooding, that cleanup and recovery efforts must intentionally include environmental justice, or they will reestablish injustices.

It is imperative to teach students to think about the social impacts of scientific issues because are there are intensely intertwined. Beyond the environmental impacts themselves, who is being affected? Is everyone being affected equally? Is everyone’s voice being heard? While the devastation of Hurricane Harvey and Irma occurred after High School Marine Biology left the Hurricane Island, I am grateful to know that there are 12 incredibly thoughtful, kind, fun, energetic students out there critically thinking about the impacts of global warming on our oceans as well as the injustices of climate change.

Sea, Sail, Science, Strong

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

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

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

Soaring through the raft challenge.

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

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

Women of the Sea on Vela in Hurricane Sound.