USM L-A College student David Chicoine foreground,
and other members of the Environmental Science class are seen
here collecting data on the nature trail at Poland Regional
High School.
December 2003
Nine students from USM's Lewiston-Auburn College spent ten
weeks
recently collecting data on the developing Poland Regional
High School
(PRHS) nature trail to make a flora and fungi nature guide,
including a
digital trail map. They identified trees, shrubs, grasses,
ferns, mosses and fungi, and also gathered information via
satellite that was then entered into a database they created.
The students completed this work as part of a service-learning
requirement for their Environmental Science class with Dr.
Ike Levine. "Service-Learning integrates service into
the students' course work," said Rose Fitch, Service-Learning
Coordinator at L-A College. Not only does this benefit the
community, but it also enhances the learning experience of
the students who participate. In this case, when completed,
PRHS will have a geographical information system (GIS) disk
for the school's future
use, and our students will have used state of the art equipment
to create a portfolio of their work as part of their final
project." The students who collectively contributed more
than 250 hours of service on this project are Ian Harris,
Katie Bunker, Darla Hafford, Rebecca Lebrun, Dora Medouris,
Stephanie Dumont, Cyndi Polisky, Dave Chicoine, and Amanda
Raymond.
Pictured here is a satellite image included in the students'
portfolio, developed utilizing Arc-Map software and Global
Positioning System hardware. The area of the nature trail
is shown toward the upper right.
