Vital Signs Community

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!

August was a busy month for the Vital Signs community and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute's Education Group. We concluded the summer with two educator institutes. In the first two weeks of the month, two different and equally engaged and phenomenal groups of educators came through the doors of the big gray building on Commercial Street. Check out some of what we did!

Special blog entry from go science and dfriant!

Our fish need you! If you enjoy “fishin” for bass and want to continue, consider being a citizen scientist for your favorite lake. Get hooked on the Vital Signs citizen scientist program and learn about invasive aquatic species that may be inhabiting your lake.

Special blog post from educator kkeliehor!

I recently attended the teacher/educator advanced training to get kids engaged in science and to become citizen scientists. Being both a 4-H leader as well as a homeschooling mom involved in several co-ops, I found the training to be invaluable.

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:

We had 44 surveys completed for our Equipment Use inquiry last week. Thank you so much for your rapid and helpful responses! We'll be using them to streamline our new Lending Library. More on that soon.

The lucky winner of the GPS drawing is.....