Summer Interns Focus on Science Communication Thursday, June 11, 2009 This summer Acadia Partners has hired two summer interns to work on science communication with Acadia's resource management team and with the inventory and monitoring crew at the park service's Northeast Temperate Network (NETN).  Sara Delheimer, who is attending the University of Tennessee, and Hannah Kreitzer, who attends Unity College here in Maine, will be with us for 10 weeks through June and July.  Their job is to help us make all the scientific work going on at Acadia more visible and accessible. Their primary focus is on creating "resource briefs" -- two page summaries of issues, research, and other insights into the park's work on resource management.  But while they work with scientists and park staff to gather to information to create resource briefs they are also maintaining a regular "blog" of their activities.  The blog is a joint effort between those of us working here at the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) and other park researchers and writers across the Northeast.  It is called "Field Notes:  Observations on science and nature in northeastern national parks." Read full article: 'Summer Interns Focus on Science Communication' (1331 bytes more)

Sumner HS and the Maine Wind Blade Challenge Wednesday, June 10, 2009 Sumner Memorial High School dominated the recent Maine Wind Blade Challenge with teams that ranked first, fifth and seventh in the statewide competition. Combining their technology education and physics courses -- and using composite materials from University of Maine’s Advanced Engineering Wood Composite Center -- students Chris Pickering and Blaine West (right), Matt Holmes and L.T. Tracy, Anthony Cultrera and Nathan Vandegrift, designed and fabricated three of the best wind turbine blades among the 100 plus students and 13 schools competing from throughout Maine. The student design teams and their teachers will bring some of the turbines with them to Moore Auditorium this coming Saturday, June 13, at 7 PM as they present a talk on their design work and their experiences in the state composition. This event is a great way to learn about wind turbines and about a successful program at our local high school. It is also a great way to get to support and get to know these students. Read full article: 'Sumner HS and the Maine Wind Blade Challenge' (841 bytes more)

Historical Changes in Freshwater Insect Communities of Acadia National Park Tuesday, May 26, 2009 An inventory of the insects of Mount Desert Island conducted between 1928 and 1945 provided Acadia National Park with a unique opportunity to assess historic changes in insect communities.  Two research biologists, Glen Mittelhauser and Bryan Windmiller, applied for an L.L.Bean Research Acadia Fellowship to look at current insect communities and to compare them to the historical record. During 2008, Mittelhauser and Windmiller conducted an inventory of selected freshwater insect taxa (whirligig beetles, predaceous diving beetles, burrowing water beetles, backswimmers, giant water bugs, water scorpions, and creeping water bugs) on Mount Desert Island in order to assess changes that have occurred in these insect communities since the early to mid 1900s. During a talk at SERC's Moore Auditorium on Saturday, May 30, they will discuss details of the historic inventory of insects, their 2008 results, and the changes that have occurred in the aquatic insect communities that they studied. Read full article: 'Historical Changes in Freshwater Insect Communities of Acadia National Park' (872 bytes more)

Fishing for Tourists Wednesday, April 29, 2009 Cod fishing was once the economic engine of the Newfoundland economy. But in the early 1990s the fishery collapsed due to severe overfishing. Unemployment in the area reached levels in excess of 30%. The Schoodic Education and Research Center's next "Second Saturday" talk is by Natalie Springuel, a Maine Sea Grant Extension agent, who spent her six month sabbatical studying tourism in Newfoundland’s post-cod collapse era. Her talk is titled "Fishing for Tourists: The Newfoundland Cod Crisis and the Role of Tourism in Outport Revitalization." Read full article: 'Fishing for Tourists' (1614 bytes more)

New Scholarships Available for Teachers Attending AP Summer Institutes Tuesday, April 21, 2009 Acadia Partners for Science and Learning announces the Schoodic Scholarships for Experienced Teachers program which will provide funds to enable exceptional teachers to participate in Advanced Placement Summer Institutes* at the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) campus in Acadia National Park. Lack of funding is a substantial barrier to participation in professional development offerings for many teachers, particularly in these difficult economic times. “With so many school districts in Maine and in other states slashing or eliminating tuition assistance we are especially pleased to make these nationally recognized Advanced Placement Institutes more accessible,” said Denny O’Brien, Executive Director of Acadia Partners. Read full article: 'New Scholarships Available for Teachers Attending AP Summer Institutes' (1471 bytes more)

Scarborough HS Students Present Research Results Tuesday, April 07, 2009 On April 1 the ninth grade students in Emily Sherman's earth sciences class presented the results of their research into questions about mercury content in freshwater and estuarine systems in the vicinity of their school. Their research was supported by Acadia Partners, with the help of the University of Maine's Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research. Financial support to enable the program, including training and support for teachers, was from the Maine Department of Education. The questions that the students explored tie back to two decades of research into the sources and effects of mercury here at Acadia National Park. The poster presentations by students were the culmination of work that started last fall. Students learned about the toxicology of mercury and learned that most of the mercury in Maine arrives through the air, largely as a result of coal burned to generate electrical power, and travels long distances. They also learned how mercury settles as part of dust on the leaves and needles of trees as well as coming to earth in snow, fog, and rain. They learned about the chemistry of mercury and about how it is transformed into a poisonous, organic form through the action of anaerobic bacteria. Their research projects looked at differences in mercury levels in saltwater and freshwater systems and at differences within a single system due to geographic factors such as elevation, distance from streams, distance from trees, and so on. The broader goals of this work are to engage students in the hands on work of actual scientific research and to bring them into closer contact with Acadia National Park and with the scientists and work that goes on here. Read full article: 'Scarborough HS Students Present Research Results' (2099 bytes more)

The Eastern Cougar: Wild Cats or Wild Imaginations? Monday, April 06, 2009 Do cougars still occur in Maine or other eastern states? Where do cougars that show up in the East come from? Should they stay on the federal endangered species list? What are the prospects for the return of this top-level predator in eastern North America? Mark McCollough, Ph.D., endangered species biologist for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, recently completed an extensive review of the status of the eastern cougar for the federal government. Dr. McCollough will present the results of the status review and present his views on one of the most controversial wildlife topics in North America. Read full article: 'The Eastern Cougar: Wild Cats or Wild Imaginations?' (860 bytes more)

No 2nd Saturday Lecture in March Thursday, March 12, 2009 Our featured speaker for the March "Second Saturday" talk at SERC's Moore Auditorium has had to cancel. So ... we will be canceling the event this month. (This is the first time we have had to do that in more than a year!) We will be back to our regular program in April. Our current (though tentative) plan is to have Dr. Mark McCollough of the US Fish and Wildlife Service come talk to us about the state of the Eastern Cougar in Maine.

Beyond Naturalness Thursday, March 12, 2009 "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." -- Yogi Berra Where are we headed with managing protected areas? Traditionally, toward protecting or restoring "naturalness." Can we do that anymore? That was a question put before scientists at last week's George Wright Society conference in Portland, Oregon. For some thoughts about that discussion and about what it has to do with science education, see Bill Zoellick's blog posting titled Beyond Naturalness.

Twitter Tuesday, March 03, 2009 Bill Zoellick hosts a Twitter page that will provide you with moment-to-moment updates about thinking and happenings related to parks, science, and education. You can see the most recent postings over on the right side of the Acadia Partners homepage. This morning (Portland, Oregon time) the twittering was all about a presentation at the George Wright Society conference that was about the National Parks and native American tribes.

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