The Center for Teaching and Learning's fifth through eighth graders are engaging in a year-long collaboration with New England scientists to find invasive species along the shores of Midcoast Maine.

A recent fieldwork session returned the students to Reid State Park where they used scientific inventory protocols with quadrats.

The class broke down into four groups that reviewed all of the invasive species listed by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute's Vital Signs program.

Each individual had a specific task within his or her group: one student recorded all of the information gathered and conclusions drawn, another helped the group determine the number of unique species found at the study site, and a third steered the group’s determination whether or not invasive species were found and then relayed the evidence for the conclusions.

The fourth member of the group took species photos to be uploaded to the Vital Signs site for review by research scientists.

The student scientists took salinity measurements with a refractometer, pH readings with a digital meter, and temperature with an analogue thermometer.

They found invasive species such as green crab, common periwinkle, and possibly lacy crust bryozoan and collected samples for detailed identification under a microscope.

CTL students will visit beaches at Pott's Point Preserve, Port Clyde, and Hendricks Head over the next few weeks to get a clear picture of the extent of these invasive species along the coast.