Happen to be looking for the name of that boat launch? Or the name of that lake or river? You’ve come to the right place, this Google Earth .kmz layer will provide you with the answers you’re looking for. I’ve created this layer of the boat launch sites across the State of Maine for students and scientists a like to use for analysis. In this layer you’ll find specific information relating to each individual boat launch facility.
I’ve created this handy and helpful KMZ layer of every county in Maine and the total population of that county. Included in this layer is a legend with description of how the fields in this layer are classified. Every county is clickable and provides census totals and county name, population density can be related to areas of high invasive species incidents.
This fun KML layer provides the user with a location of Research Facilities within the Gulf of Maine region. Each point of interest on the map gives you a name, address and link to the appropriate website. This layer is helpful if you’re looking for a specific research facility that is studying something you may be interested in.
Have you ever been out in the field and find yourself unsure of which habitat zone you’re in? I’ve created this habitat layer that spans the entire State of Maine. This biophysical map will tell you not only where you are, but will also allow you to compare data with other different habitat zones.
Before observations are published to the Vital Signs website and made public, data must undergo a Quality Assurance Check and an optional Peer Review. The Quality Check is a first step in the online review process to ensure that the data entry form is complete, and jives with the Vital Signs site policy. Peer Review is a process the scientific community uses to critique and validate scientists’ work before it is published. A combined Quality Check and Peer Review is the very best way to make sure that a data collector's very best work is available for the Vital Signs community to use.
Students are challenged to slow themselves down to make careful observations about what they see, smell, hear, and taste. Self awareness gained and observation skills built during this activity will be invaluable during fieldwork as students must slow down in order to closely observe species and habitat at their study site.
This lesson guides students' creation of an action project. Persuasive writing may be something that students are unfamiliar with or unpracticed at, but they all have personal experiences to draw from where they tried to get someone to do something they wanted them to do. This writing guide will help them formulate the perfect persuasive, motivational message. Students then design, create, and publish their own media projects to convey their message to their audience.
Organizing data before students start the analysis process is a critical and often overlooked step. Students use the Vital Signs Sort & Export table to find the data they need (their own, that of their classmates, and data from their comparison site). They use Venn Diagrams and T-charts to organize data before trying to make sense of it.
Students practice looking closely at a leaf, flower, leg, wing, shell, etc. to really hone their observation skills and see the pieces and parts they wouldn’t otherwise see. Species observation skills gained during this detailed drawing activity will help students tell different species apart when they do their own Vital Signs investigation. This activity may be done as individuals or as a team.
Vital Signs is a Gulf of Maine Research Institute Program. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 3.0 License.
