This time of year field work is done, samples have been collected, hypotheses have begun brewing, and many samples have been submitted to the laboratories for analysis. A few results have begun to trickle in, and now things get really difficult - and really exciting. Now we have to interpret our data, summarize it, and think about all the reasons we might be seeing more or less variability than we anticipated. Or results that turn our hypotheses on their heads.

As a scientist with lots of years experience working with data, those sets of numbers that come back from the lab are highly anticipated. They are packets of evidence that support a hypothesis, or if they don't, they make us knit our eyebrows and re-think our conception of how the world works. Either way, it's data that let us move forward (even when moving forward feels like a step backward, as in the latter case).

Data - if have have designed our experiments well - confirm or deny our model of a system. They are as close as we get to an answer to a question we've posed. And that answer undeniably leads to more questions...and this is how we push back the frontier of science. Sometimes slowly, hopefully deliberately, and with the best evidence we can gather.

Our earliest eel data (not yet ready for primetime) are suggesting some very interesting patterns, and mostly supporting our ideas about how the (eel) world works - but not entirely. Stay tuned for more...

Science relies on very carefully designed research plans. We think hard about what to sample, when, how many, how - very specifically - we will collect samples, and what it will all mean. These methods decisions are critical - if your hypothesis and your data collection don't match, of if there's something about your methods that gives you confounded information. you won't be able to find out if your idea of how the world works (hypothesis) is borne out (supported) by the data.

Over the past couple of weeks, loads of high school classes have begun their mercury research by sampling invertebrates, and UMaine scientists helped us electrofish for American Eels. All of these outings were carefully planned and designed with possible hypotheses in mind. However, there's always a bit of luck involved in fieldwork.

We've had some fantastic luck - capturing exactly the number of eels we wanted from one stream, and finding plenty of dragonfly nymphs in many sites, like our new Vermont site (where pickings seemed slim this summer - but the site really worked out great!). But, at other sites, luck wasn't with us. Our other eel stream didn't pan out, and fewer odonate nymphs were found in the New Hampshire sites. For the eel project, this has led to some interesting new ideas: for example, one stream seemed to have NO fish whatsoever. In that stream, we now wonder if the dragonfly nymphs are the top predators? This has been shown for some fishless lakes. Does that help explain why that particular stream has dragonfly nymphs with greater mercury than the neighboring stream, that did have fish?

Perhaps the thing about science that keep me coming back is that there's no end to the questions: one project leads us to a new model of how the world works, and gives us more questions than we began with. We learn a little, and wonder a lot. Embrace the questions - we're about to move on to making our research questions really concrete.

A quick note: a fairly large army of volunteers, agency staff, scientists, and technicians have already helped in the field and in discussions about these projects - so many thanks to you all!

Students in Mr. Lindsey's Environmental Chemistry class sampled at two sites yesterday within the Sunkhaze National Wildlife Refuge. The class was successful at capturing many odonate nymphs, and observed other biota such as crayfish (in Birch Stream), and a leach (in Baker Brook). The class had already studied identification of odonates, so they were able to identify each one they found to the family level right there in the field.

Erik DaSilva, a SERC Institute and Sea Grant employee who is helping to improve our curriculum materials, got out in the water and helped sample as well.


A great way to kick off this project year!

Sarah here. I've been in the Woodstock, Vermont area for several days, working with teachers Jennifer Stainton (Woodstock Union High School, VT) and Erica Ferland (Stevens High School in NH) and meeting with NPS staff headquartered at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park right here in Woodstock. There was broad support and excitement to get some Acadia Learning projects underway at the Park and in nearby waterbodies, and across the border in NH.

We took a hike up Mount Tom to The Pogue - a pretty pond surrounded by carriage roads, hiking trails, and a wooded landscape, thanks to the efforts of the park's three stewards, reflected in the Park's name. The Park also offers several tours of the buildings and grounds. I took a fascinating tour through the Mansion, which detailed the Park's interesting history and personalities.

We had great luck scoping out the Pogue for odonate nymphs, after a little perseverance. We found what looked like a small aeshnid, a small libellulid (my ID is fuzzier on this one), and then Erica pulled up this beauty - which appears to be an aeshnid.


Jennifer thought to put her pen in the photo for scale. What a whopper! We caught & released him/her - this was just a scoping trip not a sample collection outing, but it was great to observe the critter's movement and habitat where we netted him/her. So, things are looking great to launch a project here this fall. Stay tuned for updates...

Acadia Partners was just re-named to better reflect its partnership with the Park Service's Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC). Acadia Partners is now the SERC Institute. Read more about it here.

Acadia Partners recently learned that it will receive $224,846 of support over the next three years from the Maine Department of Education to continue and expand Acadia Learning, its work helping students and teachers engage in research that is both educationally rich and scientifically important. The project provides training, financial aid, and logistical support to teachers as they involve their students in research activities around the state. For more information about this grant and our plans, please see the full article here.

This week, Old Town HS has presented in front of an audience of scientists at the IF&W office, and one of the Nokomis groups presented today (three more tomorrow).

So far, the poster this year are showing our intensified focus on data analysis. Box plots and correlations (X-Y plots, or scatterplots) are the key data display types. Students' graphs appear more sophisticated, and more closely aligned with their research questions, than in previous years.

Here's a sneak preview of one of my favorite graphs so far, showing that drawing it by hand can be the most effective and elegant presentation:


This poster will be presented tomorrow, along with about 15 others, at Nokomis.

Five high school teachers in Maine have been studying mercury in aquatic and terrestrial systems this academic year. They will present results of their scientific research at a series of poster sessions throughout the state of Maine. The mercury data are being compiled into a regional database that includes three National Parks and are helping scientists address questions related to the spatial variability of mercury, and to develop species that can act as indicators, helping to identify possible high-mercury sites.

See our calendar (at right) for dates and times of the presentations.

We've added some photos to our Flickr page. You can see them stream live from our page over on the bottom of the right hand column, or check them out here!

Acadia Learning has added their presence to today's popular social networks. See our links at the top of the page, or the bottom, to follow us on the web! We are now featured on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Blogspot.

Welcome to the official site launch for the Acadia Learning project. Here you will find a hub of information about us. You can see our upcoming events on the calendar on the right. Feel free to click around this and other pages here on the site to learn about the projects we are working on as well as viewing our recent news. Please visit the sites on the right of our collaborators and those who help make this project possible. Check back here for updates. Thank you!