Cameron working on light sensing robot

Nora working on her seismograph

Leah measuring sunspots

Watershed’s Conceptual Physics class is wrapping up the year with a three-week individual project period where each student has chosen to investigate some physical phenomenon in depth. The projects range from Margo’s detailed investigation of how eating and insulin affect blood sugar, to Sophie’s elaborate wind tunnel investigation of airfoil shapes.

The project presentations will be on Thursday 9 am and Friday 11 am, June 3 and 4. Please come and see what the students have been up to.

Sophie working on airfoils

Watershed Observation students at the base of the American Chestnut

After showing students the orchard of back-crossed American and Chinese Chestnut trees at Merryspring Nature park, Evans led the students to the magnificent 70′ high tree. The tree is not visible from the road, so it was a real adventure search, but students spotted the burs on the ground and soon found it.

The demise of the American Chestnuts in the first part of the 20th century has been called the “most costly ecological disaster in American history”, Evans told the students. Seeing a wild specimen so healthy in the woods was an inspiring and hopeful sign of nature’s resiliance. In fact, the American Chestnut Foundation has incorporated the genetic material from this tree into their breeding program.

The students are finishing up their year learning the basics of scientific observation by creating a field guide to 15 trees with hundreds of drawings from life. They will be taking a practical test next week where they will be expected identify trees in the forest. Wish them luck!

Street lights are the second largest user of electricity for Rockland, costing the city more than $13,500 every month.  When City Council authorized an evaluation of city energy use as a part of an energy planning grant application last November, a street light survey was identified as a key step.   A street light survey would allow the Council to determine if the existing number, location, and wattage of street lights made sense or if there might be ways to reduce energy costs, while improving the overall quality and efficiency of Rockland’s outdoor lighting.

left to right: Larry Pritchett (chair of Rockland Energy Committee), Janet McMahon (teacher), Nora Willauer, Reid Evans, Nathan Hillman, Fiona Boyd, Devin Fletcher, Brenda Reddy, Sophie Davis

Just as the Rockland Energy Committee began figuring out how to conduct the street light survey, Janet McMahon, a science and social studies teacher at Watershed School, approached the Committee looking for an energy related project her students might do.  The Committee unanimously suggested that the street light survey would be a good project for the class.  Janet McMahon and 10 Watershed sophomores have enthusiastically taken this on.  Since early May, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, student teams have been fanning out in the area east of Broadway to document the city’s street lights (pole numbers, location, light type, wattage, light purpose, etc.).  In addition, they have been working with John Root, Rockland’s Code Enforcement Officer, to put the information they’ve collected on a Geographic Information System (GIS), which will help the City plan more efficiently.  By the time they are finished, they will have covered more than 20 miles of city streets and inventoried nearly 400 street lights.

The three goals of the survey are to confirm that the lights the city is paying for actually exist, to  identify specific lights that should be reviewed to see if they are over-sized for their location or may no longer be needed, and to add the street light data to the City’s GIS system in the code office.

Achieving these goals has the potential to both save the city a great deal of money and provide Rockland with the information needed to transition to more energy efficient street lighting over time.

Cameron Gerrish collects data

In addition to on-the-ground inventory work, Watershed students have been researching steps other towns and cities are taking to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions associated with lighting.  The class’s initial findings are both surprising and inspiring.  Outdoor lighting constitutes up to a third of the energy used by most towns.  As a result, towns of all sizes in Maine and across the country are working to reduce lighting costs.  “It’s as if light bulbs are going off in town officials’ heads all over the country”, one student commented.  Rockland has approximately 773 street lights and a population of approximately 7600, which translates to more than 1 street light for every 10 residents.  This is much higher than the average in Maine.  Many Maine towns, such as Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, Bar Harbor, Kennebunk, South Portland and Lewiston, have come to the conclusion that they are over-lit and have begun street light reduction programs to reduce light wattage or remove unnecessary lights.   Other towns, such as Bangor and Waldoboro, use lower wattage lights to begin with (for example, in the Bangor area, 50 Watt lamps are used in most residential areas, instead of the 70 Watt minimum used in Rockland.  Some towns are turning off or dimming lights between midnight and 5:00 am when most people are asleep. In addition, there are a host of new more efficient technologies, such as energy on demand and motion detectors that light up streets as pedestrians need them, intelligent (computerized) street light systems that adjust the brightness of lights depending on the amount of moonlight and time of evening, and conversion to LED lighting, which is being piloted from Old Town, Maine to the Los Angeles, California.  An added benefit from these technologies and programs is that residents of many towns are now enjoying a night sky with far less light pollution.

Public safety is usually one of the main barriers that arises when towns consider reducing street lighting.  Surprisingly, study after study has shown that

Nathan Hillman, Devin Fletcher and Brenda Reddy check results.

crime is unaffected or even decreases when the number and intensity of street lights is reduced.  Another barrier identified by the students is that the Central Maine Power rate structure for delivering electricity to Rockland discourages conversion to more efficient technology.  For example, older lamps that use 30% more energy and produce more light pollution are less expensive than the newer more efficient lamps.  There is even a penalty for converting 70 Watt lights to 50 Watt lights.  These create a disincentive to change that is beginning to receive scrutiny at the legislative level.

In the end, “it all boils down to common sense,” says student Cameron Gerrish.  Because most towns have put in street lights over many decades, usually without an overarching plan, there tends to be a lot of waste and inefficiency.  As student Brenda Reddy put it, “every town would like to cut costs and what better way to do it than to cut unnecessary expenses.” Classmate Sophie Davis quoted from the Clinton Climate Initiative, which is working with the many of the world’s largest cities to reduce energy use and costs:  “The solution to the climate crisis isn’t far off in the future – it’s in the buildings we inhabit, our civic infrastructure and the way we organize our

Climate Change Class

lives.” “It’s a no brainer”, says McMahon, “the town saves money, cuts greenhouse gas emissions, and we can see the stars!”.

Come learn more about this fascinating topic.  Watershed students will give a presentation to the Rockland Energy Committee on Wednesday, June 2 at 1:30 pm at Watershed School (Lincoln Street Center).  All are welcome.  For more information contact jmcmahon@midcoast.com.

Thanks to the wonderful staff and students at the Watershed School who have demonstrated their caring by helping an elderly couple with yard work and securing a dog pen. This had to be done, but no one came to help until my friend of years ago, Will Galloway, brought the entire school, staff and students, to help on May 11.

The staff and students did a bang-up job of raking up the leaves, cleaning out the ditches, removing the leaves in a wheelbarrow, trimming the bushes, cleaning out the flower gardens, digging a deeper trench around the dog pen and nailing the boards to the poles and the wire to the boards in order to keep the big dog from going over the fence.

Our appreciation for the work — well done — and the spirit of cooperation by both staff and students who have proven to me this city, this state, this country and this world will be in good hands with our young people of today.

Thank you all!

Semper Fi

Leroy Peasley

Rockland

Watershed student Thomas O'Connor

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has notified Thomas O’Connor, a junior at Watershed School in Rockland, that he has reached the next level of the competition. O’Connor is the fourth Watershed student in the history of the small independent high school, which has been in operation since 2003, to achieve this distinction.

The National Merit awards are offered to high school students who have earned the highest scores in the country on the Preliminary SAT. High school sophomores and juniors take the exam in the fall each year. The following spring, juniors are identified as high scorers if they are at or above the 97th percentile in the nation. The next level of the competition will be announced in September when O’Connor and other Maine students will be named either commended scholars or semifinalists. Only semifinalists will continue on to compete for the award money.

Here are a few

Baby Colton was born on Saturday March 14th at 11:20 in the morning. He was 6lbs and 10oz and all was going well as of a week ago! Congratulations Alison and Tom! We hope Colton and Maggie become good buddies!

This is a picture of our initial rehearsal with Christopher O’Riley on March 24th.

Sophie and I were selected to appear on NPR’s From the Top at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine and were asked to write about our experience.

On Tuesday afternoon we drove to Portland for our initial rehearsal with pianist and From the Top host Christopher O’Riley. We met the rest of the musicians and staff members and all played for each other in a master class kind of setting. Everyone was so nice and encouraging and the atmosphere was relaxed, contrary to what I was imagining.

On Wednesday afternoon we had a dress rehearsal and pre-taping of the show. It was extremely laid back and full of humor and smiles. Then came the final taping and show! It was a lot of fun to play at Merrill Auditorium. The acoustics were very much in our favor and the audience gave back so much energy!

This afternoon Sophie and I went to play at Learning Works in Portland. It is a program designed to help underprivileged students get their GED. It felt so nice playing for this audience. They asked questions and brought up points about music and the violin that I had never considered. This was the most rewarding part of the three days.

I was surprised to learn that From the Top does far more than their radio tapings. Now that we have been on the show, From the Top is essentially our advocate and support network if Sophie and I want to start an education program in the future.

The past few days were unbelievable. We had so much fun and are still trying to “come down” from the concert last night and the whirlwind experience. Music is a powerful beauty! Special thanks to everyone who came to the concert. Your support means so much to us!

Margaret (Maggie) Elizabeth McCarthy was born today, Friday, February 12, 5:19 pm, after a labor of 3 hours, 19 minutes–weight: 6 lbs, 6 oz; height: 19 1/2 inches. Mother Jude, Baby Maggie and Father Bryan are all well, tired and ecstatic. Pass the word!

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.”
Eleanor Roosevelt