December Update

Hello Maine Unschooling Network, I hope this season finds you all well, content and blessed. While I know so many of us are busy this month, I don't have any MEUNetwork-specific activities to post. Of interest, however:

Teen Gatherings @ The Portland Public Library will not be meeting for December and will resume in January.

Many unschoolers are participating in choirs, plays, ballets, fairs, and other seasonal community events for this December, so if you have the interest and ability, showing your support is always appreciated. (My two will be singing with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and The Magic of Christmas throughout the month, for instance.)

From smack dab in the middle of Maine comes this really wonderful blog, The Scientific Homeschool. I look forward to a snowy, winter day when I have hours to peruse the blog as it is chock-full of good things.

Another new-to-me resource is Exploratorium. In particular, I like that the site has a whole section for teens, which offers anything from cow eye dissection videos to inspirational stories.

Vi Hart has an amazing blog and produces equally amazing videos and there's lots to learn from her.



Stay safe, well and warm and may your season be bright and merry!

~Amy Bradstreet

AP Biology Offered In Casco

Olivia, 13 and Adam, 11 have been having a great time exploring AP Biology with Lisa and I highly recommend checking out her course offerings, as Lisa is a very informed and enthusiastic facilitator.

~ Amy Bradstreet

From Lisa:

Bio tomorrow will be very cool with some surprise "guests" borrowed from the bio labs at USM!! We are focusing on invertebrate metamorphosis, which is very fascinating. Remember, bio lab is "drop in", so if you haven't been coming, and are considering trying it out, tomorrow might just be the day for you!


More Biology Class Info:
Hello from Lisa Willey,
I am starting up Biology labs classes primarily for high school, but many middle schoolers will also gain much from these labs. Classes will be drop in style,
occurring on Thursday mornings, 9-11. Most classes will be at my home, with
some occurring elsewhere depending on subject. Each class will be $10 per
person, which includes all materials; feel free to show up for any or all
classes that interest you. I will publish a class subject list for 8 weeks at a
time, available at the first class. I have taught science to homeschoolers for
several years, mostly in Portland or Casco. My daughter took the AP
Environmental Science exam last spring. She is going to be taking the AP
Biology exam next spring. The first lab will involve pillbugs and animal
behavior! I will base all labs on AP Biology recommended material.
The first class will be held Thursday, September 2nd.

Lisa can be reached at gaiagirl2003 at yahoo [dot] com

Lobster Tales And Unschoolers At The Gulf Of Maine Research Institute

Last week, about fifteen of us met at the GofMERI for the Lobster: Untold Tales lab. The facility is impressive and the kids had an opportunity to collect data to help with the GofMERI's research. The program feels overall, a bit rushed, however and the staff focuses on the school groups the entire time. For example, at the introduction, the staff presents Google Earth to the participants, zooms in on an inland area and a river, asking the kids if they recognize the area. I could see the home/unschool group wanting and struggling to answer and looking a bit dismayed at the whole exercise, especially when by the end, the staff zooms to the school that the other half of the group came from (which happens to be a location at least two hours from the greater Portland area, where most of the home/unschoolers were from.) I thought this was unfortunate and it needlessly excluded, as I wrote, a half of the entire group participating in the lab. (see other complaint)*




Moving on, now. As stated, the facility is amazing and the kids were all able to participate fully and I think it's fair to say that our group thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Adam, 11, did say, however, that had they had a chance to really dig into the data and ask lots of questions, he would have.

The kids were sectioned off into teams and assigned stations that would be rotated with other teams so everyone had a chance at each station.





The lab consisted of taking videos of the lobsters in the tanks to observe behavior and determine what conditions the lobster preferred, using an interactive game. Then the kids used microscopes to examine and photograph the lobsters in all its life stages as well as the food it eats. At one point, the kids also examined a live lobster. At yet another station, using another interactive program, the kids determined the best and most profitable number of traps per lobster catch. Through their testing and data collection, the kids determined that overall, the best method is to set out a reduced number of traps, which, in turn, gains the fishermen the most profit.









The final step in the lab was to collect the data and present their findings in a video and then all the teams' data was compiled and presented to the entire group at the end, showing the results of their work.





Each participant then received a digital code to the website so they can view their data results. It's a pretty fabulous resource and the institute is very well-equipped with materials and the knowledgable staff offers a unique program. I advise the home/unschoolers to be proactive in getting their group into the the programs and making the GofMRI aware of the home/unschooling community as a whole, so that all kids in this age range can benefit from this fabulous program.

*one more complaint--because the GofMERI relies on sponsership and grants, the program is at times tainted with some commercial plugs. The worst offender was the unnecessary Poland Spring bottled water provided for each kid leaving the program. This was especially ironic given the opening discussion about Maine's invaluable watershed. Many of the home/unschoolers in our group simply left the bottles behind, to the apparent dismay of the staff, knowing as the kids do that drinking bottled water is not good for Maine's watershed. It seemed yet another instance where the program is overlooking how knowledgable and informed many of their participants truly are. Learn more here and here.

~ Amy Bradstreet

Mycological Fun

A few weeks ago, Adam and I had a great walk in the woods at my parent's farm in central Maine. While walking over and under and through the woods, we came across many different types of fungi, and snapped these pictures.
Adam with calvatia cyanthiformis, purple spored puffball - not edible at this point, but good when younger.



Lobster Mushroom - this is actually a mold which makes a russula or other mushroom non-toxic - although this looks amazingly like a chantarelle, not growing on wood, not real gills, etc. We'll have to check back a bit earlier in the season next time, not just for the puffball above but also for this little guy.



Green Jelly Club - leotia viscosa - any of the slime molds are gross IMHO.



Large, Brown, Mystery Mushroom - no idea if the gills are attached or detached, veil or no veil, shape of the base, etc. It was about the size of a small dinner plate.



Based on what we learned at the Maine Mycological Foray on September 18, I've taken a stab at identifying them. The Foray was fun, although the blazing hot afternoon sun made it hard to concentrate on the identification speakers. At the start of the day, we looked at examples of some things we may want to find.

• hiricium americanum, which I know I've seen in my parent's woods before. Here is an excerpt from the University of Wisconsin - Fungus of the Month website: "It's quite delicious, with a taste reminiscent of lobster if it's properly prepared. We like it lightly sautéed in a mixture of olive oil and butter, with just enough heat to turn the teeth a golden brown. It also makes a fine ^TM. You might also try it in soup, as a substitute for rice, noodles or ancini de pepe (or other little Italian pastas). It's great in stir fry. "Lobster Helper


• calvatia gigantea, someone brought a beautiful specimen that they sliced into sections and handed out to certain people - I guess its who you know.


• laetiporus cincinnatus, the Chicken Mushroom, because it, you guessed it, is supposed to taste like chicken when cooked properly.

Then they sent us into the woods and fields. In addition to finding the ducks, and some skeet we also found some mushrooms. The kids have been taking an AP Biology course, so they knew all about finding and collecting mushrooms. We spotted this huge purple mushroom, and learned later that it was ganoderma tsugae, the Hemlock Varnish Polypore. And it was growing on a hemlock too!



We also found a whole bunch of piptoporus betulinus (whitish tan in the center of this photo) growing right up a dead birch tree. From further reading, I understand that the fungus can be treated to make an excellent fire starter - like one spark from a flint and whoom! (that is the sound of a huge fireball resulting from this most excellent fire starter being lit).



When I saw this one in the woods, the kids told me right away it was poisonous, so we handled it carefully and brought it back for show and tell. It was the Destroying Angel, amanita bisporigera. Beautiful but deadly.



Since then, the kids and I have cultivated a growing interest in all things Fungi and we're on alert for further finds on our walks in the woods, like the many we saw on our evening walk in Ferry Beach last night.



This is a great time of year to get out and do your own mushroom foray and being in the Maine woods in October can't be beat. Good hunting!

~Alex, unschooling with Olivia, 13 and Adam, 11 in Old Orchard Beach