PFI: Developing Infrastructure for Innovation in Downeast Maine: Using Place- and Inquiry-Based Marine Science Education to Build a K-12 STEM Pipeline

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This Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) project--a Type III (A: C) partnership between University of Maine at Machias, an NSF PFI graduate (0227729), and Washington County Community College (WCCC) (Calais, ME)--builds upon the previous PFI award which developed a partnership between university and local marine-resources. This project takes what was built in that partnership to the next level by adding human resource capacity?students and teachers?to be inextricably connected to a place- and inquiry-based curriculum for the marine environment of downeast Maine that can be implemented in a new physical infrastructure for innovation, a state-of-the-art wet/dry marine education center/classroom. This addition will occur on the same parcel of property, purchased as a result of the earlier project, which is home to the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education and a field station for the University of Maine at Machias. In this context, student involvement in mentored, hands-on, inquiry-based projects that use the marine environment as a tool to enhance applied marine research and education in the classroom will be increased, and that involvement will be further reflected in students? interest and confidence in science as a key to the well being of their community. At present, much of the economic engine that drives the downeast Maine coastal economy is tied to healthy and abundant marine resources (such as lobsters, soft-shell clams, sea urchins, sea scallops, mussels, marine worms, ground fish). The Principal Investigator and various other members of the partnership organizations have worked for over 20 years with fishermen, local stewardship committees, the Maine Department of Marine Resources, and local politicians to improve their knowledge of the ecology of these resources so that they can help to better manage them. Without healthy fisheries, downeast Maine?s coastal communities would become ghost towns. The vision is of a coastal economy that is fueled by these healthy and abundant marine resources that are part of both wild and culture fisheries. To achieve this vision requires combining new, innovative thinking with the traditional and fundamental approaches that have been used for generations. Indeed, efforts to enhance fisheries using cultured organisms and create new culture fisheries (clams, oysters, scallops, and perhaps lobsters) will continue as will applied research efforts that increase knowledge about spatial and temporal trends in the abundance of wild populations of commercially valuable marine species. This project fits nicely with and supports this long-term vision because it focuses attention on the marine environment, the fisheries, and the people who ply their trade in the marine environment. Specifically, this project focuses on the marine environment that students and their teachers live in and the importance of the health of that environment. Heretofore, this focus has not been brought to K-16 education. The infrastructure and the curriculum that will be built will stimulate some students to become more inquisitive and, eventually, to carry this level of inquisitiveness into STEM fields. Providing this educational opportunity will result in an increase in applied marine research, education, and technology transfer in downeast and coastal Maine which will lead to the commercialization of products and processes prompted by the needs and wishes of coastal communities, industries, and entrepreneurs. Partners at the inception of the project are Academic Institutions: University of Maine at Machias (lead institution); Washington County Community College; University of Maine Sea Grant College Program, University of Maine Orono; School Union #103; and the Moosabec Community School District; and Private Sector Organization: Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education.