Students connect with scientists

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Students in Mary Povak’s grade 7 science classes at SeDoMoCha Middle School had the opportunity to share their findings from a research project involving a nearby stream with scientists and the world through the Gulf of Maine Research Center.

    “We used a program called Vital Signs, which is done by the Gulf of Maine Research Center,” Povak said. Through Vital Signs her students, working in groups of three or four, were able to connect with those working at the Gulf of Maine Research Center by posting their observations at www.vitalsignsme.org with some receiving comments and feedback. Povak said students visited a small stream close to the school campus and brought back small organisms to study further and share their findings on.
    “They went out and collected information on the critters they found,” she said. “They had to find three pieces of evidence to prove the invertebrates they found.”
    “We did field notes and we found a mayfly nymph, we tried to get as detailed as possible,” seventh-grader Trista Gray said about her group’s organism found at the stream. “We had to find evidence for what we found,” she said, as she and partners Kathleen Bayerdorffer and Kiara Prescott had numerous pictures of their mayfly nymph to help prove the organism’s species.
    Prescott said the posting on the Vital Signs website included data such as “where we found it, the city, the water temperature and PH.” Gray said other information pertained to the mayfly nymph, “how long it was and we caught it with a net.”
    “We got a reply,” she said, which was posted on the website. The reply said the three had a nice sketch of their organism, and the poster said how they liked how the students shared some of the key identifying features such as the gills and tail.
    “Going out and actually finding things was really fun,” Gray said. “We got to see new things and new species we hadn’t found before. We had to basically report everything we found, it was hard evidence to show we found everything.”
    “We also found a water scorpion and crayfish and a fingernail clam,” Prescott said. She mentioned the three posted pictures of these other species to help confirm their findings.
    Breyer Manchester said his group discovered alderfly larva and shared their discovery through Vitals Signs. “We went out on May 10 and the day was overcast,” he said. “We scooped up a buck full of mud,” as in the mud Manchester and group partner Jordan Sheppard said they discovered the larva.
    “We thought it was something else but it was alderfly larva,” Manchester said. Using his laptop to show the data on the Vital Signs website, he said, “Alderfly larva are between 17 and 20 millimeters long and this one was 20 millimeters long.” Other data listed the town and county where there the larva was found and it said the mud was next to freshwater.
    “The weird thing is if you touch them they curl up,” Sheppard said, saying this made taking a photograph of the alderfly larva more difficult.
    A comment posted said, “Awesome photos and sketch, I really like your field notes.”
    On his laptop Brandon Weston showed how a map pinpointed his group’s finding, which could zoom in and out to Dover-Foxcroft. “We did the crayfish that we found,” he said, adding they could not tell if the organism was male or female. “We were scraping on the bottom, and we dumped the mud and found something moving.”
    “We also found one on a rock but there weren’t a lot of them,” Cody Labbe said. “We caught some little fish  but we let them go.”
    According to the program website, Vital Signs is an authentic science education experience for Maine middle-schoolers. Students learn science by being scientists, participating directly in a real environmental research effort alongside top scientists, passionate citizens and a statewide network of their peers.
    Maine’s one-to-one statewide computing network connects all teachers and seventh- and eighth-graders to the Vital Signs community. Students use inquiry, peer review and scientific tools to investigate a genuine and compelling research question. Social networking tools facilitate a fluid exchange of knowledge between novice and expert in a way that transforms the students’ relationship with science from distant spectator to a thoughtful participant.