Science Communication: A Day at the Darling Marine Center

The sun shimmers across the water, creating a beautiful, iridescent dance through the waves that lap at the boat on the dock. A few laughing gulls fly overhead, proclaiming their excitement for a sunny day of crab-hunting.

That’s what we all wish this past week would have been like! Here on the island there seems to have been a consistent fog, and an occasional mist here and there. As I sit here on my computer, entering data from our sea scallop spat bags, I hear fog horns blaring in the distance from the lobstermen going to do their routine trap checks, rain or shine.

On Monday of last week, I had a nice change of scenery- taking off on the Vinalhaven Ferry to Rockland the night before, and then off in the morning to the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center in Walpole. It was a brief back-road drive to the center, and I passed through a few cute cities which I hadn’t visited yet. The weather was slightly gloomy, but the wildflowers clinging to one another in their roadside clusters warmed my heart a bit. 

Once I arrived at the center, I joined interns from the AquEOUS program at the University of Maine, along with the rest of my Aquaculture Research Institute Externs for an awesome day learning about strategic and inclusive science communication. Throughout the day, we had a few sessions where we were led through engaging scenarios, which were facilitated by Sunshine Menezes and Katharine McDuffie from the Metcalf Institute. Later we were joined by two stellar panelists, Bill Trotter of Bangor Daily News and John Bear Mitchell of the University of Maine. They both discussed with us their perspectives of storytelling, and I came to realize how unique it was that even though they may work in different professions, their goals and audiences differ but can also overlap.

The three concepts that Sunshine and Katharine both emphasized to us to use in our science communication was intentionality, reciprocity, and reflexivity- and encouraged us to reflect on which we could better use on a daily basis, and which we felt were our strengths. One of my biggest takeaways from this workshop was that science communication happens for all of us- in lots of different ways. Especially as someone in a role that encompasses both educational and research aspects, it’s especially important that I’m able to explain my research in a way that makes sense to everyone. 
Coming back to the island Tuesday afternoon, I fell right back into my favorite place like I had never left. Being on the mainland made me realize how much I craved the simplicity of my quaint cabin by the sea, where it almost always felt as though the waves rocked me to sleep every night, somehow, through the dirt. Upon my return, it was a computer day from what the weather said to me. I worked on my tunicate species ID sheet, which will be helpful for me during my research to ensure thorough data collection. 

Throughout the rest of my week, I entered my first few columns of data into my tunicate-specific spat bag data sheet, enabling me to keep every number I could possibly need in one place. I’ve also been working on a fun blog post that’ll be coming sometime soon about the color variation on the shells of our baby scallops. It was an only natural question that popped into my mind after completing many-a-bag of spat, haha. I also spent a significant amount of time out on the aquaculture site, continuing with our deep clean and also grabbing some spat bags to bring back to the island for our education team. 

Also…I’ve finalized my research question! I’ll be working to find differences in tunicate species richness in our spat bags from different areas in the bay, as well as different positions in the water column. Super exciting stuff! In my research so far, I’ve identified five tunicate species, three of which are invasive to northern waters. They compete with our native species for natural resources, and take up lots of space on the seafloor that is important to native settler species. Invasive tunicate species are of special concern for the Gulf of Maine as it slowly has been warming. These little guys are broadcast spawners- so the warmer the water, the more they’re inclined to reproduce (See sources one and two). I’m hoping that the results of my project will help the Hurricane Island community and greater Maine coast better understand tunicate populations and their impact on our native species. 

Talk soon,

Olivia

(P.S., let me know in the comments if you have any questions about scallops, research on Hurricane, tunicates, or anything else!)

Sources: 

So you want to know: The terrible trouble with tunicates – Maine lobstermen’s community alliance. (2013, February 7). https://mlcalliance.org/2013/02/07/so-you-want-to-know-the-terrible-trouble-with-tunicates/

NY Sea Grant | NYSG: Research News—Invasive species a worry for scallop fisheries. (2017, September 7) https://seagrant.sunysb.edu/articles/t/invasive-species-a-worry-for-scallop-fisheries-aquatic-invasive-species-research-news

School's out for summer! (but this spring was pretty rad)

As I’ve been enjoying the first few weeks of summer, I have been reflecting on this past school year. For me, a definite highlight was working with the Vinalhaven School for the third year. I collaborated with the middle and high school science teachers and visited the classroom twelve times over the course of the year, in addition to having the students out to Hurricane in the fall and spring. 

The Vinalhaven students are rock stars, and the May and June end of year programming with them was no different. Recently the high school earth science class had been studying sea level rise, so we examined maps of Vinalhaven with sea level rise projections. During their day trip to Hurricane, they used stadia rods to map sea level rise around Hurricane. They thoughtfully considered their visual data as we discussed mitigation and resilience tactics occurring locally and globally.

Vinalhaven high school students use stadia rods to map sea level rise projections on Hurricane.

6th graders are psyched about their seaweed harvest!

When the 6th grade science class came to Hurricane for their end of year field trip, we eagerly boated out to the kelp aquaculture site and harvested some mature kelp that they had started growing from spores in their classroom last fall. After deploying the kelp off Hurricane’s shores last October, we enjoyed seeing how much it had grown, and we especially enjoyed preparing and cooking our seaweed. Kelp chips are a new favorite! Add lemon juice, garlic, hot pepper, or flavors of your choice before loading into the oven and baking to a crisp.

Kelp chip prep zone

Finally in June, the 7th grade class came to Hurricane for the annual three day, two night field trip. A trip that has incorporated middle school leadership preparation and Leave No Trace practice before their fall trip to Katahdin, this trip also included science work throughout and presentations on the third day. Several girls who hadn’t been interested in rowing tried it and then begged to go rowing again on the trip, even talking about starting a rowing team on Vinalhaven. The 7th graders also shared their Leave No Trace hand symbols at dinner circle, and eagerly shared their learning with another teacher later on the trip. 

Microscope time! What types of plankton did we find?

On day three, the 8th graders joined us on Hurricane, along with a few teachers and guests from the Vinalhaven Land Trust. The 7-8th grade science classes had been studying kelp all year, from tank maintenance and water quality in the fall, to kelp line design engineering, to product possibilities using seaweed. Throughout the year, we experimented with seaweed-based products and researched product design after a video call with Josh Rogers, owner of Portland’s Heritage Seaweed store. The final day of the Hurricane trip was a chance for the 7-8th graders to present their own products, explaining their revision process, marketing tactics, and sale opportunities. We taste tested seaweed spice blends (great over popcorn!), ranked our favorite seaweed bioplastic air fresheners, saw bioplastic keychains and jewelry, and tried on some seaweed-based body scrubs and beauty products. 

Vinalhaven Land Trust and Hurricane staff members convene for the 7-8th grade product presentations.

During the presentations, our guests from the Land Trust, in addition to other Hurricane staff, Vinalhaven teachers, and I were so impressed with the students and their creativity, their ability to describe their iterative product design processes, and their understanding of ecological and economic opportunities and concerns with seaweed. Earlier in the trip as we hiked by Hurricane’s large garden, students recalled how last fall, they had loaded kelp onto the soil to provide nutrients as fertilizer.

I am grateful that the students were able to share their work with so many Hurricane Island staff members and Vinalhaven community members. After a morning of presentations, we were able to explore Hurricane, offering some awesome activity choices (students ranked their top three activities out of Scallops, Lobstering, Facilities/Trail Work, Hiking, and Rowing on the gigs). Everyone was able to participate in 2x45 minute sessions of their top two activities, thanks to staff support and flexibility. I observed many happy, curious students and it was great to see all the students excited about their final activities on Hurricane for the year.

Thank you to the Hurricane Island staff for your commitment to offering high quality, fun, collaborative programming. Special shout out to the kitchen staff for being accommodating and providing delicious food. Thank you to the Vinalhaven Land Trust for your continued financial and logistical support of the Vinalhaven-Hurricane programming. And a big thank you to the Vinalhaven teachers and students. Ms. Baker, Ms. Applegate, and Ms. Cohn, these programs would not be possible without your flexibility, humor, and hard work.

Fresh kelp anyone?!

We love alumni updates!

Recently we received an update from one of our former students, Kayla Haskins. She has attended Hurricane summer programs each of the past four years and has spent her senior year building a greenhouse for her capstone project.

I had the pleasure of teaching Kayla during the two week long Advanced Marine Biology program in the summer of 2017. That was Kayla’s third summer attending a Hurricane program, and I was struck by her kindness, curiosity, and gratitude.

Program Director Phoebe Jekielek has known Kayla since she first attended a program four seasons ago. Phoebe reflects, “Kayla’s first year, way back in 2015, she came and joined us for a one-week program called Living on the Edge. It was my first season working for the organization and I had developed a relationship with every open enrollment participant and their parent(s). She was quiet and thoughtful and absorbing everything we could throw at her and the week flew by! Soon after the program ended, we received a letter in the mail from Kayla thanking EACH ONE of our staff for teaching her on Hurricane. Not only that, she had made each one of us a painting that was specific to us...a fiddle for Silas, a sea star for Jacque, a pair of sunglasses for me...something that symbolized each one of us to her. In her thank you note, she shared that she “discovered a thirst for science, that I may not understand completely yet, but I definitely know it’s going to be a part of my future.” She has come back every summer since, learning more, teaching us more, and growing with us. I am continuously amazed by her and am not surprised that she is excelling at school and being a community leader wherever she goes. It’s been an honor and a privilege to watch her grow in curiosity, compassion, enthusiasm, and commitment and I can’t wait to see what she’s going to do next!!!”

Kayla with a small ocean treasure during the summer of 2018

Kayla is currently a senior in high school and is excited to study sustainability at Prescott College in Arizona. Read below to hear from Kayla about her project:

I wanted to update the Hurricane Island community of what I have been up to because I credit a lot of it to my time at Hurricane. I just finished building a greenhouse for my school community. I have been designing, fundraising, and building since September. I plan on using the produce that the greenhouse provides to give free and healthier food to my school lunches as well as give to the local food bank in my town. I am also using the greenhouse for future hands-on education in my school by creating a curriculum that will be used in the following years in our earth science (6th and 7th grade) and environmental science (12th grade) classes.

I am also beginning to built three vertical gardens that will be hung throughout my school to provide herbs, lettuce, and improved air quality. The idea to build vertical gardens I fully credit to Hurricane Island because when I went the year before last I was able to see the environmental group go through the process of building some of their own for the benefit of the community. The greenhouse I built also with the influence of Hurricane Island because at Hurricane I was able to experience how absolutely crucial it is to have hands-on learning to impact learners to see the importance of nature and keep a lasting memory of the experience of learning.

The hardest part of this project so far was the doubt I originally received. The general consensus at the beginning was that building a greenhouse was too ambitious and would require more skill, knowledge, fundraising, and time than I had. People suggested that a more reasonable goal would be to design the greenhouse blueprints, make a business plan, care for bees, or other things along those lines. It was difficult at first to have so many people against me when I had an idea I was very passionate about and knew I could do. After creating a budget and blueprints, I fundraised the money I needed thanks to the lovely community around me and good amount of strangers as well, then I asked for the help of my grandfather who had no doubts in my project at all. We started to build the greenhouse together. Although I definitely had people doubting me in the beginning I now have so many people that believe in me and my project and I feel very fortunate for that. I have received so many offers for help. I am connecting with a college professor to make a syllabus for classes next year, I was offered free soil from a local farmer who lives down the road from me, I was offered very cheap hay from another local farmer, I was able to speak with an architect who was interested in the greenhouse and looked over my original blueprints, the sustainably council at my school donated to my project without any push at all, I was able to go to a CISA (community involved sustaining agriculture) story time free of charge, and many school groups have offered to assist in planting starting this February. So getting the greenhouse project started was a little difficult but the end result just shows that when you are behind something you are passionate about amazing things can happen.

This is a part of my senior project  (capstone) that my school requires of each student but I did take it a bit farther than the usual project. My school was fairly excited about the idea and there was never any question about if the greenhouse could be built but just where it could be built. Besides the school board allowing me to build the greenhouse on school grounds the rest has been an independent project. The school did not provide funds, or materials, or anything of that sort but just gave me the mental and physical space I needed for being able to turn my idea into something real.

I hope that Hurricane Island can keep being as impactful as it has been or me! I would love to visit the island this summer because I can’t imagine a summer without going! Hurricane always provided a reset in my mind and brought me back to thinking about what I loved each summer. I have dreamed of being able to spend a full summer on the island since the first day I was there! Thank you once again!”

This summer, Kayla will be back on Hurricane for two weeks to help us pilot our high school junior and senior internship program, and she’ll be focused on our gardens and sustainable food systems. We are thrilled to have her on the island once again!

Photo of the finished greenhouse, in time for starters of kale and mesclun salad mix.

Afternoon light at Kayla’s greenhouse!

Root Skills Conference Reflections

Exhausted. Energized. These words seem to contradict each other, yet, after full days at conferences rich with thoughtful discussion, workshops, and colleagues, I feel simultaneously exhausted and energized. Exhausted because the days are long, my mind has been actively engaged, I’ve been traveling, and I am meeting people and conversing all day. Energized because these conversations and workshops are so stimulating and inspiring, and I am invigorated thinking about all the possibilities; how will I incorporate my learnings and leverage new contacts?

The Root Skills Conference earlier this month provided me exactly the combination of exhaustion and energy that I have come to expect at conferences, and the quality of the conference far exceeded my expectations. The conference, hosted annually by the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, builds equity within the environmental sector, reducing barriers for participation by offering sliding scale conference rates, free on site child care, and language translation services. The two-day conference also offers a combination of content learning and skill building, with Day 1 focusing on themes such as Land, Water, Food Systems, and Energy, while Day 2 focuses on Equity, Youth Empowerment, Resilience, and Grassroots Fundraising, for example.

In my workshops, I learned about Wabanaki history in Maine, urban community gardens and health programs, and explored equity and race. I also valued the conference’s “Catalyst Conversations” each morning as a warm up hour. We talked in table groups about topics like renewable energy solutions and obstacles, and shared our own work and experiences with other conference participants.  

Reconstructing a map of Maine after the Wabanaki REACH workshop.

I enjoyed attending with colleagues and having people to check in with throughout the two days. Hurricane Program Manager Teddy Simpson and I kept our wheels turning as we discussed some of our takeaways and impressions. We also reflected (and socialized!) with many of our environmental education colleagues from Maine, particularly through the Maine Environmental Changemakers Network.

I am grateful to have learned more about the Wabanaki history of Maine and how indigenous lands were continually stolen. I value the time spent examining my own identity in the context of the environmental sector. I appreciate connecting with colleagues and impassioned changemakers of all ages. I met incredible individuals doing amazing work, and I hope to keep in touch and keep energizing each other.

Teddy (back left), Robin (back row, fourth from left), and Maine Changemakers pause for a photo-op at the conference. Photo courtesy of Future Focus Media Co-op.

Oak Hill’s October Adventure

The first week of October was busy on Hurricane! We enjoyed lots of energy and curiosity from the 50+ Oak Hill freshmen who joined us. For the second year in a row, Maine’s Oak Hill High School has offered a freshman trip to Hurricane. Due to a large freshman class, the students were split into two groups, visiting either Monday to Wednesday or Wednesday to Friday, and in both groups, there were students experiencing their first boat rides as we journeyed across Penobscot Bay!

Chilly weather didn’t get in the way of a refreshing ocean dip!

The first group experienced lots of cold and rainy weather, yet spirits remained high. Many students reflected that a highlight of the trip was our perimeter hike and sit spot at Gibbons Point - during chilly wet weather with high winds! It added a sense of adventure and common experience to the occasion. The second group enjoyed warmer, sunnier weather for activities like the raft building challenge and our exploration of the intertidal zone.

Teams discuss their approaches to the raft building challenge!

One of the goals of the trip was to build cohesion and community among the freshman class. Students laughed through numerous team challenges, and several students shared that by the end of the trip, they felt more comfortable around their peers, especially those outside their friend groups.

They also delved into some marine science while they were on Hurricane. Investigating intertidal organisms, students unsurprisingly were excited to find crabs of varying sizes and colors. Several students sacrificed their dry pants and socks to search for urchins too. On campus, they embraced learning about aquaculture and plankton as they held our baby scallops and identified plankton under the microscope. Personally I enjoyed sharing our ocean setting with these students who spend most of their time inland. Several expressed an interest in returning, so I hope to see them back on Hurricane in 2019!

An urchin under observation by Oak Hill students.

Back to school on Hurricane

These past few weeks, students around the country have filled their backpacks with notebooks and pencils and have gone back to school, getting to know new classmates and teachers. Two local midcoast Maine schools joined us on Hurricane for back-to-school days full of island exploring, teamwork, and tone-setting for the year to come.

On Tuesday, the Camden-Rockport Elementary School sent its 1st and 2nd graders from the multiage classroom out to Hurricane for the day. This was our third year in a row spending the first day of school with the multiage group, and what a great way to spend the day! Their teachers had worked with us over the summer to plan the curriculum - launching into their first science unit about the sun! We explored shadow shapes, created art on solar paper, investigated temperature on different colored surfaces, hiked to see Hurricane’s different solar panels, and more! Of course we took advantage of low tide to visit the intertidal zone - these students are experts after their rocky coast unit last year in school. The final challenge of the day was structure building: can you design a structure to shade and cool a metal bowl of water? The students were creative, curious, and attentive, and I enjoyed spending the day with these younger learners. What a fun first day of school!

Multiage students present their shade structure at the end of a sunny day on Hurricane!

On Wednesday we experienced the first day of school AGAIN! Camden-based Watershed School brought their 20 high school students for three days on Hurricane, also for the third consecutive year. This trip was focused on leadership, being outside, and establishing school culture and values. Highlights included the team communication and structure-building challenge “looker-runner-builder,” rock climbing and rappelling, pier jumps, and rowing. Some of us even rowed all the way around Hurricane! I enjoyed seeing seniors befriend freshmen and observing students push their comfort zones in different environments. It was also fun to see the many returning students from this group, and to appreciate how they have grown over the past few years.

Watershed students hone their rowing rhythm.

Thanks to both Camden-Rockport Elementary and Watershed School students for joining us during your first week of school! We wish you a wonderful school year and we hope to see you back on Hurricane soon!

Moving about the kitchen cooking for community

Guest blog post from Kitchen Assistant Teagan Wu

When asked if I wanted to participate in the High School Sustainability Leadership week, I immediately lit up with a smile and proposed a sauerkraut making workshop. I imagined each student creating their own jar of ginger carrots and working together to chop red and green cabbage. After much anticipation, I greeted a group of students eager to learn. In our opening circle, I was struck by each student’s openness to try a new activity and expand their understanding of fermented foods.

In my opinion, no sauerkraut workshop is complete without a snack, so we began by tasting different kinds of hummus; beet, roasted carrot parsley, and black bean. We also tasted some red cabbage, beet, garlic, and ginger sauerkraut that was ready after fermenting for about a week. This sparked curiosity and excitement among the students. I spoke about how eating sauerkraut provides our gut with beneficial bacteria thereby supporting the whole body. In my experience, it is necessary to take action in order to connect with food and care about health benefits.

As a group, we dove right into chopping carrots and slicing garlic and ginger, tasting along the way. We started sauerkraut by first massaging the slices of cabbage with a small amount of sea salt in order for the fibers to release moisture and create a brine. I remember making sauerkraut for the first time in my college fermented foods class this past winter. I got to feel with all my senses how the cabbage went from dry to wet, crunchy to soft and salty. I was reminded of these surprises as the students joined their hands together to massage the cabbage, creating a squeaky sounding music.

I got to smile and laugh with the students throughout the process. We marveled at the bright purple cabbage packed inside the jar, shimmering in the light. With three quart jars of sauerkraut beginning to ferment, we gathered in a circle once more to conclude. This felt more like a beginning than an ending. Each person got to check in about their experience and share their observations, feelings, and hopes. Several remarked on how simple the process was and others expressed how they wished to try making fermented foods at home. I looked around the circle and felt a wave of gratitude for getting to share the activity with them.

Working here in the kitchen at Hurricane Island this summer has ignited my creativity and enthusiasm for cooking. By immersing myself in preparing meals each day, I discover a rich and expansive world of possibilities. I get the opportunity to collaborate with the kitchen team to transform leftovers into new dishes. Black bean soups have become burgers with just a few added ingredients and frittatas have evolved into egg salads. I am often surprised at the recipes that take shape in the moment. I have felt energized to make sauerkraut, trusting my senses to combine beets, fennel, and carrots into colorful blends. In the kitchen one afternoon, I immersed myself in the process of chopping cabbage, listening to silence and occasionally looking out through the windows to the ocean. These experiences cooking deepen who I am and allow me to stand grounded. As we gather in a circle as community before each dinner, I feel how I am connected to others. Together we feel our relationship to place and all that sustains us.

Each day is a gift to move about the kitchen as a team cooking for community. Making meals for others and myself asks that I engage with a sense of purpose and love for the greater whole. I keep returning to how food is connected with our hearts and minds, not only our bodies.

I learn every time I say yes to cooking. I listen to natural movements that guide me to try new salads or arrange a platter of vegetables in a certain way. I delight in beauty. I arrive again and again to gratitude; breathing in the salty air on my walk to the kitchen, stirring onions and garlic, building a plate of colorful vegetables and greens from the garden, sitting at the table experiencing textures and flavors. In these moments, I relax into the present, full and aware of sensation. At the same time, I begin imagining the next meal or sauerkraut project.

It is now time to start on dinner and see what awaits in the kitchen. I wish you all nourishment of body, heart, mind, and spirit.

-Teagan

Memories from High School Marine Biology

Guest blog post by Teaching Assistant Ari Katz

Living here for two months, it’s easy to get lost in routine. Wake up at 6:45. Morning meeting at 7:30. Breakfast at 8:00. And so it goes. Once the novelty of living on an island dissipated, simple reminders to take my gaze off the ground became invaluable. So, I’d like to give a HUGE thank you to High School Marine Biology for pushing me to live in a constant state of wonderment. You gifted me fresh eyes and whole lot of fun times. As I’ve reflected on the week, I think the most meaningful thing I can share are the small moments where I was reminded to look up. So, with that, here’s my highlight reel:

Sunday: First days are always awkward. No matter how you try to spin it, throwing together a group of people who are mostly unfamiliar with each other is a recipe for drawn out silences and unsolicited staring contests. Most of the first day was very structured which didn’t allow for too much down time, but as soon as we sat down for our first nightly meeting it very quickly became quiet. Alex (my co-educator) was grabbing something from the office, so I had time to kill before the meeting started. My go-to in these situations is to ask for jokes or puns, which either turns out great or evokes an even more uncomfortable silence. Without hesitation hands shot up and eyes brightened (thank goodness) and nightly pun time was born. For a solid half hour, students took turns sharing puns and getting stumped. I think this was the moment the group really meshed together, and I remember sitting there grateful for the laughter and excited for the days (and puns) to come.

Monday: We tasked the students with creating their own research questions for three days of intertidal exploration. This was my first time doing research with a group, and I was pretty curious about what the students would be curious about. One project that really stuck out to me was looking at how long it took periwinkles to re-attach to rocks. I expected questions about biodiversity, about how species population varies with substrate, and while those are all valid and interesting, the fact that the students took something they were doing for fun – plucking periwinkle off rocks – and turned it into a research question is pretty admirable. Even the most mundane can still hold mysteries to uncover.

Students doing intertidal zone research.

Tuesday: Today was a good day, I promise!

I told you Tuesday was fun! We went lobstering and rowing in the afternoon.

Wednesday: Puddin’ time! Today we brought marine biology into the kitchen and made Irish Moss pudding. I know teenage me would have been pretty grossed out at the thought of eating seaweed pudding, so the fact that everyone was so excited to try it was awesome in and of itself. We listened to some tunes and had a mini dance party in the kitchen while cooking, and after 20 minutes of double boiling milk and seaweed and a whole lot of straining, it turned out great! We had our pudding for dessert after dinner along with donuts courtesy of Joel. A fantastic food day.

Thursday: The raft challenge is a Hurricane Island classic. Groups are split up into teams and are given a few giant plastic barrels, some wooden planks, and a handful of ropes with the goal of building a raft that will carry their team from one end of the Ice Pond and back. I’ve experienced a 50/50 success rate; one group makes a totally sturdy raft, and the other group makes a raft that falls apart the second it touches water. As I expected, HSMB was 50/50, but the miraculous thing was that nobody gave up. The team with the less sturdy raft just kept on going, testing out new ideas, trying new designs, all while the other team was chartering teammates back and forth right next to them. If that’s not optimism I don’t know what is. (For the record, their raft never did get across the Ice Pond, but they were offered rides from the other team, and some just decided to swim.)

The raft challenge juxtaposition.

Friday: Today’s lesson was on climate justice, and we began by playing a couple games that involved communication (or lack thereof). One of these games is called the No Rules Game. The rules are pretty simple: one student gets sent out of the room while the rest of the students think up a task for that student to perform once they come back. The student then figures out the task by walking around the room and pointing to objects or moving in a certain direction, and the rest of the students give positive or negative affirmations (“mhm” or “uh uh” were popular ones) in response. No words allowed! As you can imagine, the game devolves into laughter pretty quickly. We decided to begin with easy tasks. The first student had to put an empty ketchup jar on her head. The next had to grab an eye lens and look at someone through it. The next had to flip over some stools and lay on them. Then the tasks got more complicated. One student had to go up to the whiteboard and draw a caricature of Alex while also getting him to cry on command (he’s pretty proud of this skill). For the final task, the group came up with a three-pronged challenge: have the student put a pair of rain boots on his hands, grab a butterfly net from the wall, and go outside and pick up his water bottle that had been placed outside with the net, with the boots still on their hands. There were a few of us in tears from laughing so much. Picture a group of 13 people following a student with boots on his hands and a butterfly net in between outside while chanting “mhm!” on repeat. Not your average climate justice lesson, I’d imagine.

Me crying, boots on hands, a butterfly net, and Alex on the whiteboard.

Saturday: It was our last day, and Alex wanted to end the week with a bang. This entailed letting the students cover him in lobsters. The picture does this justice more than I can with words.