News & Events
Island Explorations moves to Tuesdays
Island Explorations is our popular and long-running nature day camp for children ages 3 to 11. For the past several years we have offered programs two days per week, with younger children on Tuesdays and older children on Wednesdays. We have noticed, however, that many children who otherwise would have attended our Wednesday session prefer to come on Tuesday with younger siblings instead - and have a great time! This has led to lower enrollment in our Wednesday sessions. In response to this, we'll be consolidating our programs to one day this summer. Each Tuesday morning there will be a program for children ages 3 - 6 (with an adult), followed by an afternoon program for older children ages 7 - 11. We'll be offering the same fun mix of activities, games, and exploration that has made this program a success for almost 20 years.
IIT announces Island Nature Walk series for summer 2008
Our second summer of nature walks will feature a variety of new and exciting topics and even an exploration by sea kayak along Islesboro's
western shoreline! Pace and discussion are geared towards adults, but families are always welcome. All walks are offered free of charge to the Islesboro community.
Please
click here to download this summer's schedule.
ICS 5th grade measures erosion at Hutchins Marsh
The shoreline at IIT's Hutchins Marsh preserve is eroding very rapidly, and may soon undercut the popular access trail to the shoreline. An enthusiastic group of students at Islesboro Central School is
trying to help us figure out why! IIT installed a set of erosion monitoring stakes in late 2007 and took baseline measurements at that time. Patty Crawford's 5th grade class returned on a sunny and warm January day to measure the change that had occurred in the month since the stakes were installed. The students worked in teams to measure the distance from each stake to the edge of the embankment above the beach. Back at school, the students will be drawing maps of the shoreline in art class using traditional cartography methods, and will also use the school's GIS lab to produce a digital map of the shoreline area. Information gathered during this study may help to guide IIT's approach to this management issue. Thanks to Mrs. Crawford's class for their hard work!
High school students test water quality at Sprague's Beach
This past fall, IIT expanded its growing partnership with Islesboro Central School by initiating programs with Lori Stafford's 11th and 12th grade chemistry class. The class was in search of some project-based learning opportunities, and we decided that water quality might be a good place to start. During two in-class laboratory programs, the students learned how to use sampling equipment, understand the science behind the tests they would be performing, and design a good scientific experiment. On December 6th (a cold, snowy, and windy day!) the students made their first visit to the monitoring site behind Sprague's Beach. Thanks to donated hip waders acquired by teacher Lori Safford, the students braved the cold to measure pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and coliform bacteria. The students will return to the site in April to complete follow-up testing, and will then share their results with their peers and the community through a poster presentation.
For more news and updates, please join our mailing list!
IIT publishes a newsletter in the spring of each year, which is sent to all Islesboro residents and our entire mailing list. Our annual report, published each fall, is sent only to current members. To join, please call
207-734-6907. 
