Old Town High School students to present research as part of UMaine collaboration
Old Town High School students will showcase research on a marine worm that is causing problems for oyster farmers in the state and around the world at a May 25 presentation at the University of Maine.
Starting at noon in Norman Smith Hall, Room 107, four underclassmen will each share a slide show on the research they conducted as part of a collaborative research course taught by Old Town science teacher Ed Lindsey in partnership with UMaine.
Over the last four years, Old Town students have worked with Paul Rawson and Sara Lindsay, professors at UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences, to study the ecology of a marine worm that negatively affects oyster aquaculture, a growing industry in Maine, according to Lindsey.
The worm, Polydora websteri, is harmful to the industry because it can leave unsightly blisters in the oyster shell.
The project began with a proposal from the UMaine researchers suggesting the high school students conduct citizen science to measure worm prevalence and reproduction in different estuaries.
The researchers and students have worked with Jesse Leach and Eric Moran, who raise oysters on the Bagaduce River in Penobscot.
The next phase of the project, according to Lindsey, is to compile new knowledge about the worm’s behaviors in the adult and larval phases of life, and to make ecological inferences that are specific to different estuaries.
In addition to the marine worm study, Lindsey’s students have for several years worked with researchers including Sarah Nelson, a scientist in the UMaine School of Forest Resources, and Bill Zoellick of the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) Institute.
The students worked with the researches through Acadia Learning, a collaboration led by UMaine and the Schoodic Institute. The program brings scientists, teachers and students together to conduct useful research and effective science education through a model of inquiry-based education.
Since Nelson and Zoellick started Acadia Learning in 2007, it has involved 37 teachers and more than 2,500 students in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Through that partnership, the Old Town students conducted research using dragonfly larvae as bio-sentinels for mercury bioaccumulation in wetlands, streams and lakes in the Northeast. The students also helped develop field methods that could be used effectively by citizen scientists.
The dragonfly mercury research project, led by Nelson, is now a collaboration among UMaine, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Park Service. The project engages citizen scientists such as students and visitors in national parks to collect dragonfly larvae from sampling sites. The nymphs collected from about 60 national parks are being sent to UMaine, USGS and Dartmouth College laboratories for analysis.