|
Through Poland Spring's lead corporate funding, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute's LabVenture! Program offers an immersive, half-day science experience free of charge to every fifth and sixth grade student in the state of Maine. Students conduct hands-on research at GMRI's state-of-the-art facility. The interactive, multimedia program helps instill a love of science in the children who participate. LabVenture! recently welcomed its 50,000th Maine student.
Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), is a national nonprofit water education program for educators and young people ages 5-18. The program facilitates and promotes awareness, appreciation, knowledge and stewardship of water resources through classroom-ready teaching aids and the establishment of internationally sponsored Project WET programs.
Poland Spring supports Project WET in many Maine communities, using the curriculum to teach students about water, conservation and the environment. Our goal is to ensure that the next generation of Maine leaders will have the knowledge and the skills they need to protect our shared water resources.
Poland Spring’s water education team uses Project WET materials statewide:
• In the company’s Trout in the Classroom/Brookie Buddies grade school program
• With visiting groups of students, teachers and parents who tour the Poland Spring Museum in Poland
• At children’s water festivals held at the University of Maine in Orono and Portland
• At Poland Spring’s two annual “Make A Splash” festivals where 300 grade school students participate in hands-on water education activities
• Upon request from teachers statewide
This unique curriculum teaches students about the local watershed ecosystem and how water quality affects Maine’s aquatic life. Between January and May, students raise brook trout from the egg stage to fingerlings in large aquariums and then release the fish into a local, state-approved body of water.
From 2008–2010, Poland Spring provided 25 tanks, 8,400 eggs and staff time to make this program possible for more than 900 students in our host communities. To date, we have taught the Trout in the Classroom/Brookie Buddies program to 5th and 7th grade students in Poland, Minot and Mechanic Falls; Kingfield, Phillips, Stratton and Strong; Hollis and Buxton; and in Denmark, Fryeburg, Brownfield and Lovell.
Teaching freshmen at Mt. Abram High School about biomonitoring, stream gauging and geological formations. These trained freshmen then become mentors for fifth-graders at their Trout in the Classroom trout release event.
Collecting snow pack data with Mt. Abram and Poland Regional High School students. This collaborative venture between the Maine Geological Survey, Maine Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service and US Geological Survey uses the student's data to assist with state flood forecasting and climate change prediction.
Presenting and demonstrating the effects of pollution on groundwater through a hands-on learning activity at the annual Earth Science Day at the Maine State Museum, an event attended by more than 2,500 students from all across Maine.
Partnering with the Range Pond Lake Association to assist with erosion control and water quality data collection within the local watershed. Poland Regional High School science students are integrated into the planning and water data collection process.
|
