Vinalhaven middle school students are getting a very holistic approach to aspects of their education this year, and learning technology and about their community at the same time.
For the past three years, students at the Vinalhaven School have been studying the question of whether the year-round community on Vinalhaven will be able to sustain its existing way of life in the future; and as a subset of that, how the fishing industry and working waterfront access on Vinalhaven have changed over time.
They are using technologies they have learned through CREST-an Island Institute project funded by the National Science Foundation that uses placed-based education to provide opportunities for hands-on technology education -to examine this question.
During the coming school year, one activity they will be tying into this theme is compiling information on various places across the island. Each student will identify a particular location on the island, take pictures of it, and create a recording of an essay they have written describing what this particular place means to them.
They are learning how to use GIS-a computer-mapping and data-management system-so that they can map these places. The final product will consist of a web site with a map showing all the locations the students chose, with hyperlinks to the photos and recorded essays for each location.
The students will also be conducting a series of interviews with island residents and fishermen throughout the remainder of the fall. Rob Warren, a teacher at the Middle School, expects these interviews will give them some very interesting information on their larger question of the fishing industry and community sustainability, with lobster prices recently crashing. These interviews will be linked to the locations on the map they create and incorporated into the web site.
Hope Rowan is the technology education specialist at the Island Institute.