Mt. Ararat High School teacher Glenn Evans’ honors biology students, as a part of their ecology and environment unit, visited the Cathance River Preserve and ecology center weekly last fall to conduct field study research.
Cathance River Education Alliance ( CREA) educator Cheryl Sleeper and several area professional mentors, including local scientists and professionals from Stantec, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the Maine State Forest Service, worked with the students.
“Working in small groups, with help from their teacher and mentors, students designed a scientific study and collected data for their study weekly,” a CREA release states.
The projects ran for the first quarter of this school year.
To kick off CREA’s 2012 monthly Community Program series, the students will give presentations about their work at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 31 at Topsham Public Library on Foreside Road. The presentations will include a digital poster, lab report and a short, student-produced I-movie.
The eight topics that students researched include:
— Terrestrial Insect Sampling by Jake Papa and Jake Demosthenes.
— An ongoing study, Forest Inventory Growth Plot, conducted by Shea Nelson, Marie Ring and Zach Collins, mentored by Kevin Doran.
— A Mammal Study, conducted by Jonah Levy, Bru Abreu and Cat Johnson, mentored by Stantec professionals Steve Pelletier and Adam Gravel.
— Cathance River Water Level and Quality Monitoring, conducted by Ellison Etnier, Emma Vernard and Emma Cota, mentored by Glenn Evans.
— Habitat Hole Project, undertaken by students Sam Wood and Nick Rogers, mentored by Stantec professionals Steve Pelletier and Adam Gravel.
—A Butterfly Project, conducted by students Liz Kneebone, Jessica Wright and Danielle Krause, mentored by Sarah Sparks.
— A Mushroom Project, led by Saree Boutin, Maggie Broughton and Connie Hodge, mentored by Cheryl St. Pierre.
— A Dragonfly Study, conducted by Belle Fall and Izzy Leon, mentored by David Reed.
Monthly CREA programs will take place on the last Tuesday of each month and represent an ongoing collaboration between CREA and the Topsham Public Library. This year’s topics include programs on the Maine black bear, live bird presentations, vernal pools, Cathance River history, dragonflies, local geology, insects and the movie “Mother Nature’s Child.”
Visit www.creamaine.org for more information.
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