Students will learn more about their own communities as they complete the online "biography" and about other communities in Maine as they compare their biography to those of the other communities participating in the program.

This activity also serves to introduce students and teachers to the Vital Signs website and some of its GIS features as well as introducing the participating communities to each other.

• Comparing (How do key features of your community match those of other communities who have contributed to this program?)
• Contrasting (How do key features of your community differ from......?)
• Compiling (What characteristics are shared by several communities? What are some unique features?)
• Associating (Why do you think some communities answered the way they did? Are there any associations you can make with population, economy, geography, etc?)

• Interpersonal
• Linguistic/verbal
• Visual/spatial

• Vital Signs tools
• Topographic Map(s) of your area. ie. USGS Quadrangles or DeLorme's "Maine Gazeteer."
• Geologic Map(s) of your area if easily available.
• Phone book
• Phone access at school or home
• Computers connected to the Internet
   
  
• All Questions:
  MS Word Format
  PDF Format
  
  
• In-Class Questions:
  MS Word Format
  
  
• Research Questions:
  MS Word Format
  MS Powerpoint Format
  PDF Format
   
  
• Help: "Surf your watershed" website

In many ways Maine is a state of contrasts: coastal and inland, south and north, summer people and year-round Mainers, the list goes on. Because of Maine's rural nature, many of our communities are more or less isolated from one another.

In this activity, students in each Vital Signs community will write a place biography following a shared format or template. In completing the biography, students will learn new things about their own community and be readily able to compare their home with those of others in this glorious state. You will hopefully be surprised by both the diversity and similarity of answers from different communities.

(See Extensions for pre-activity ideas)

OVERVIEW: Students will be asked subjective and objective questions to describe themselves and their community(s). Because many schools in Maine serve multiple towns, you may choose to have your students answer questions for all towns or focus on one in which your school is located. Also, as many questions socially-oriented, you may want to recruit other members of your team or staff to help. To help you organize your activity, click on a file format to download all questions: MS Word, PDF.
 

PART I, IN-CLASS QUESTIONS:

Answer the following subjective questions. You may provide only one official "answer" for your class or classes to be used on the Vital Signs website.

For consistency, subjective questions should be answered from the perspective of your students unless otherwise directed. If helpful, click on a file format below to download a document with one question on each page: MS Word, MS Powerpoint, PDF.

1. What % of your class has been to Millinocket, Maine?
2. What % of your class has been to Boothbay Harbor, Maine?
3. What % of your class has been to Perry or Eastport, Maine?
4. What % of your class has been to Portland or South Portland, Maine?
5. What % of your class has been to Berwick, Maine? (Berwick, North Berwick, or South Berwick)
6. What % of your class has been to Rangeley, Maine?
7. What % of your class has been to Stonington, Maine?
8. What % of your class has been to Orono, Maine? (or the University of Maine in Orono)
9. What % of your class has been to Wells, Maine? (or the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve)
10. What % of your class has been to Holderness, New Hampshire? (or the Squam Lake Science Center)
11. What % of your class has been to Rye, New Hampshire? (or the Seacoast Science Center)
12. What % of your class has been to a Canadian province in the Gulf of Maine Watershed? (Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia)
13. What % of your class has been to Massachusetts?
14. What % of your class has seen the ocean?
15. What % of your class has seen Mount Katahdin?
16. What is the furthest north you've been in Maine? (latitude)
17. What is the most popular ice cream flavor in your community according to your class?
18. What is the most common community and/or recreational activity done by your class?
19. What % of your class' parents were born or "grew up" in your community?
20. Where does you spend your free time?
21. What is the best "natural" place to swim in your community? (ie. not a pool)
22. What is the biggest tourist attraction in your community?
23. Where would you take your cousins if they were visiting from out of community?
24. What animal would you least like to encounter in your community? Why?
25. Where can you get the best donuts (or other tasty treat) in your community?
26. What is the scariest place in your community?
27. What place best represents your community? Take or get a picture of this place. (NOTE: This should not be your "Benchmark Site" - you will already have lots of these pictures)
     
    

PART II, RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

Answer the following objective questions. You may provide only one official "answer" for your class or classes to be used on the Vital Signs website.

How students get their answers is up to you. You may choose to assign all questions to all students or assign single questions to individuals or groups. This latter method is recommended as questions vary widely in difficulty.

You might also want to discuss "how to" research these questions with your students, specifically reinforcing that the internet is a great method of finding SOME kinds of information, but not all. Maps, phone calls, or personal interviews can as good or better than the internet for some information, especially if well-documented.

As above, click on a file format below to download a document with one question on each page: MS Word, MS Powerpoint, PDF.

The following links will help in retrieving census and geographic data. Other hints are provided by question:

Maine state facts (Univ. of Maine Library)
Maine state facts (State government)
Maine state facts (U.S. government)
http://www.mainehistory.org
http://www.mainememory.net/
ePODUNK - Maine facts
 

1. What is the latitude and longitude of your school's front door? (Use the Vital Signs GPS unit)
2. What is the most common bedrock in your community? (Use a map. See "Simplified Bedrock Geologic Map of Maine", a FREE publication of the Maine Geological Survery, for more information. KEYWORDS: Maine, Bedrock, Map.)
3. What is the most common surface (surficial) rock type in your community? (Use a map. See "Surficial Geologic Map of Maine", a $4.77 publication of the Maine Geological Survery, for more information. KEYWORDS: Maine, Surficial, Geology, Map.)
4. What is the source of your school's water? ie. private wells, community reservoir, community groundwater. (KEYWORDS: public, water, "public works," town name, etc.)
5. What is the elevation and name of the highest point in your community? (HINT: Use a topographic map. The Internet has many answers, but a map is a better tool for this question.)
6. What is the name and elevation of the lowest point in your community? (HINT: Use a topographic map. The Internet has many answers, but a map is a better tool for this question.)
7. What is the name and location of the steepest "grade" in your community? (HINT: Use a topographic map. The Internet has many answers, but a map is a better tool for this question.)
8. What is the total land and water area of your community in acres? (KEYWORDS: town name, area, land, water, etc.)
9. What percent of your community is covered with water? (KEYWORDS: town name, area, land, water, etc.)
10. Where and how tall is the biggest waterfall in your community? Take a picture if you can. (HINT: Use a topographic map in combination with interviewing other students, teachers, and/or parents)
11. How much average rainfall does your community receive in inches? (KEYWORDS: town name, rainfall, average, etc.)
12. What is the biggest lake in your community? How big is it in acres? (Use a map and internet search. KEYWORDS: town name, lake, area, etc.)
13. What is the biggest river in your community? What is its recreational "category" (1-5) and what is its "long term mean (average) flow" in cubic feet per second? (Use a map and internet search. KEYWORDS: town name, stream or river name, flow, etc.)
14. How many people live in your community right now? (HINT: http://www.library.umaine.edu/census)
15. Get census data from your community for as far back as possible and paste this into a spreadsheet. Make sure to include column headings. If you're feeling feisty, make a line graph of your data. (HINT: http://www.library.umaine.edu/census)
16. When was your community "incorporated?" (KEYWORDS: town name, incorporated)
17. What is the most popular ice cream flavor in your community according to local grocery store(s)? (Call local stores for the answer. Try stores in economically different parts of your community.)
18. Take a representative group picture of your class for posting on the internet.
    
    PHOTO NOTE: Make sure to ask parental permission to post this photograph on the internet. Try to allow students as much freedom as possible in determining how they will arrange themselves (in a tree, in a truck, on a picnic table, in a pyramid, a collage, etc.) This is a personal expression viewable by other Vital Signs communities.
     
    

PART III, COMPILE ANSWERS:

Compile the answer(s) to the questions and send them to Sarah@gma.org for posting on the website.

• Statistical polling - have students write a poll of questions they are interested in getting people's opinions on, have them interview as many people as they want, then figure the % of respondents who answered each way, what percentage of town participated,
• (Historical research into town's past)
• Make the historical population question into its own project, exploring the changes in industry, land use, population dynamics, economic situation of state and nation, building supplies, inventions (for example: railroads, trucks dramatically changed coastal Maine communities, invention of concrete had huge impact on Maine's stone quarries, etc.)
• Describe a day in another community based on that community's responses to these questions.
• Have students create postcards for their town - photographs, collages, drawings, etc.