Students

Jamien and Amy are two teachers in the Vital Signs community. Their students have been hard at work exploring their local ecosystems. I'll give you some hints, and see if you can guess where these student scientists are hard at work.

Great entries were submitted for our Faces of Vital Signs Photo Contest and our Create and Share Project Contest. Thanks to all for sharing your work!

Congratulation to our winners!

Flip to the Letters to the Editor in today's Portland Press Herald and you'll find a Massabesic student wishing us all an invasive-free holiday season! Here's the direct link: http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/letters/invasive-wreaths-need-careful....

Here's Elizabeth's letter (thanks for the plug, Elizabeth!!):
Invasive wreaths need careful disposal....

722 species observations were contributed this fall by students, educators, and citizen scientists! The Vital Signs community would like to recognize and thank the teachers and students from these schools for their incredible data and project contributions during the field season. One species observation from each school is highlighted below.

On the sunny and brisk Saturday that was November 5, 2011, a community came together to learn about their local Vital Signs mission.

Check out the video blog to see what we did!

The fall field season has been a busy one. Students and citizen scientists have added valuable found and not found data to the Vital Signs database on invasive and native species across the state, playing an essential role in statewide efforts to document and respond to invasive species.

The spring 2011 field season has come to a close. Here's a list of where the VS action was! One interesting note: there were fewer educators and students participating this spring than in the fall, but they covered way more ground!

Students looked for species in these towns:

Check out this screen shot of our home page! Our three most recent observation are from Madawaska, Bar Harbor, and Raymond. Three communities that couldn't be farther apart. To boot, teams in Madawaska and Raymond are looking for the same species. Cool moment. Sweet visual evidence proving our statewide reach.

On a walk through Mill Creek Park in South Portland, the Mahoney Environmental Explorers noticed that a woody vine with orange berries was wrapping itself around a large bush with winged stems. “That is strange,” said a curious explorer.

At Dirigo Middle School in Dixfield, we found an energetic and unfocused 7th grader practically bouncing off the classroom walls. When it was announced that his class was going outside on a real science exploration with Vital Signs, he enthusiastically ran to the printer to pick up his species card and data sheet and was first to have his coat on and be ready at the door….