GOMI: Curriculum

GOMI Curriculum Overview

The Gulf of Maine Institute (GOMI) sponsors youth-based curriculum initiatives that have been developed for 12- to 17-year old students residing in the gulf of Maine watershed under its Community Based Intitiatives program.

Community Based Initiative Program

The Community Based Initiative program is a unique, community-based, experiential, two-year science/community participation curriculum that promotes responsible environmental stewardship to teams of youth and adults within the Gulf of Maine watershed. With a focus on building leadership and teaching science-based methodology, experienced faculty give participants the requisite skills for conducting and reporting on field-based scientific inquiry; observing, collecting, and analyzing data; facilitating planning sessions; and implementing action at the local level. The use of mapping as a planning and analytical tool fosters a deepened sense of home place and connection to the larger bio-region. Together, these skills help participants create broad-based community awareness of and support for science-based watershed stewardship in the Gulf of Maine watershed.

The CBI curriculum is developmental. The program begins with an intensive week long residential summer institute, and students learn increasingly advanced skills over the two-year period. First-year students identify a locally-based watershed problem or point of inquiry during the summer institute, and then develop a strategy for studying their designated target during the next academic years. Second-year (returning) students, bringing the advanced analytical skills and field experiences they have acquired the previous year, focus on fine-tuning their leadership skills, refining and/or expanding first-year projects, and presenting their findings--both to their local communities via media releases, formal presentations to school boards and local governing bodies, and local publications; and across jurisdictions to the larger watershed community via Internet technology.

This summer (July 2-8, 2006), the CBI program is being hosted at the Annapolis Basin Conference Centre in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, on the significant Annapolis Basin waterfront.

Not only do CBI youth generate local site projects in their local communities and follow through on these projects over a two-year period; they also participate in a larger effort to recruit peers to further develop these projects during the academic year. The CBI program provides a large base of youth/adult teams with the opportunity to become involved in these and other experiential, science-based watershed stewardship projects during the school year. The CBI curriculum focuses on key environmental issues facing the bio-region--ranging from the challenge of urban sprawl, to dealing with invasive species, to coping with a diminished wildlife habitat, to assessing water quality issues. Whenever possible, projects are integrated into the existing school curriculum but participation by community based groups outside of the school structure is encouraged.

Several examples of academic-year CBI projects follow:

Salt marsh science Project (Rockport, MA). Mentored by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Rockport Middle School Ecology Club was initially formed to study local marsh and rocky shore ecosystems in this Massachusetts town. A small group of dedicated students mapped the site to record wildlife, locate invasive species, and identify the impact humans have on the marsh. Particular attention was paid to two invasives--phragmites and the Asian Shore crab. The students' work paid off: funding was recently secured to implement a more comprehensive program--the Salt Marsh Science Project--that targets the entire 7th grade class (100 students). The funding will address three important areas: (1) professional development in the form of teacher training in the Rockport Middle School system; (2) educational initiatives such as monitoring the invasive Asian Shore crab and phragmites in the area; and (3) educational outreach activities to inform the public of restoration activities taking place in their community.
Stream health assessment program (New Brunswick, Canada). In the fall of 2002, mentored by the Eastern Charlotte Waterways (ECW) organization, high school-level biology and environmental studies students embarked on an exciting in-field program. Their goal? To study the effects of a hatchery industry on a local tributary, and then to determine how (or if) these results impact the famous Magaguadavic River system. To complete the assessment, students used a rapid benthic assessment tool in their school labs. They then drew their conclusions by employing an invertebrate key supplied for their class.
Predator species assessment program (New Brunswick, Canada). In May, 2003 another in-field session commenced with second-term students in the same New Brunswick high school. And, like the stream health assessment project, the Eastern Charlotte Waterways (ECW) organization was the mentor. This time their goal was to research the sustainability of soft shell clams in southern New Brunswick. To this end, students are participating in a predator species assessment program, focusing primarily on Green and Asian Shore crabs that inhabit a 72-hectare site acquired by ECW. The assessment requires the use of predator traps (built specifically for the program) and inshore nets (2mm) on various tidal events to determine the presence, abundance, size, and gender of the crabs. Trap and netting locations will be integrated in a desktop GIS (MapInfo) to use as an overlay of future studies.
Water quality testing (New Hampshire and Maine). Sponsored by the Cocheco Watershed Association in New Hampshire and the Sanford Maine High School and the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maine, high school students are engaged in water quality testing and analysis to determine the capacity of the watersheds to sustain bio-diversity and, where present, determine the degree and source of problems inhibiting that capacity.
Watershed mapping project (Nova Scotia, Canada). High school students in Nova Scotia are mapping a local watershed under the aegis of the Tusket River Environmental Protection Association and the Southwest Regional School Board. This project will lead directly to the inclusion of a watershed-based curriculum in the Drumlin Heights High School.