About Animalmaineia

Welcome to the world of Maine animals! During the spring of 2007, the York 7 students spent their days tracking information about Maine’s critters. Each of us was assigned to research and create art about one of Maine's animals. Let's trace our steps from the beginning to the end -- starting with Sparks Ark, and ending with this web site!

Kickoff with Sparks Ark

To kickoff this expeditioxn we had an extremely experienced Animal Control Officer, Mr. David Sparks, come in and give us a great head start. He brought some Maine animals into show us, such as the striped skunk and the great horned owl. Many students thought the great horned owl was the most interesting of all.

York 7 student Nyador said “It was very interactive, you could see how much control Mr. Sparks had over the owl. He really knows how to deal with animals.” In fact, you could see from every animal that David Sparks really knew what each animal could and would do.

He also gave us a treat and brought in some exotic animals like the python and the the chinchilla. “Mr. Sparks had so many stories to tell it just amazed us all,” said York 7 student Carl.

Shortly after the demonstration by Mr. Sparks, everyone in the house randomly picked out the name of a Maine animal. And, with that, the expedition was in high gear!

Hunting, Fishing and Trapping in Maine: a York 7 Debate

Each student shortly after jumped into a fierce debate about hunting, fishing and trapping. In our Social Studies class with Mr.Michaud, we took a pre-research survey about hunting fishing, and trapping, declaring ourselves either for, against or neutral for each topic. Then, after doing a week of research in our packets, we had a debate -- live and heated. Each person had something to say and something to add to the discussion. Although we never all agreed, we had explored the controversy of hunting, fishing and trapping in detail.

Special Events and Field Trips

Quickly after the debate, we returned back to the studying of our animals. And on Tuesday May 8, Mr. Payne, had a great experience planned for us at The Maine Wildlife Park. The Maine Wildlife Park is a great place to learn all about what animals really go through. The animals in the Park cannot survive in the wild for some reason. Either they are injured or they have been raised in captivity and can’t go back to the wild. The Wildlife Park had many animals, a lot of them had been assigned to students, so it was a great place to be up close in personal with the animals. It was so much different than reading about it in a textbook. We had a scavenger hunt, at the Park. You had to travel all over the park to find the answers and you got to see each animal if you completed the entire paper. Shortly after the scavenger hunt and animal watching, we had a lecture from Ranger Lisa, from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Her discussion focused on predator prey relationships. “We learned so much from just thirty minutes with her, I don’t think we could have gotten that much, in a week’s worth of research” said Francis . After the lecture, we had to say goodbye to the animals. It was a wonderful day in the park, where we got to see the animal’s habitats, their habits, their appearance, and we also learned a lot too. We also learned a lot on predator and prey through the lecture with Ranger Lisa. It was a great mix between fun and information!

Two Wednesdays later we were surprised by a visit from Jocelyn Hubbell. Jocelyn Hubbell is a former ranger in Colorado and a print artist. “We walked into the library and right off we knew that she is really dedicated to her subject.” She was so dedicated that she had laid out twenty-five hand made molds of different footprints of animals that live in Maine. Some examples of the prints were the coyote, the black bear, the mountain lion, and the deer. It not only showed us how scientists tracked different animals, it showed us how we could track animals, just by little details. After selecting a print each person would pour plaster paris into a print, and let it harden. While hardening Ms.Hubbell taught us about how to identify the prints. She talked about how to identify a deer, mountain lion, or a wild dog. She had great stories about each animal, for example how the mountain would attack from behind, and how a coyote had followed her all the way through the forest during mating season in Colorado. After our discussion, we gently tapped our print out of the mold, and laid it on a plate. She gave us something to remember her by letting us take the hardened plaster paris print home as a souvenir .

Webpages and Special Projects

In Science class Mr.Payne informed us that we would be doing three webpages on our animal. Page one would be all out about your Maine animal, page two would focus on ecosystems and ecology, and page three would be about food webs and food chains. The pages have been worked on since that day with great diligence. Going along with the webpages, in art class we have been working on painting techniques. The painting techniques were taught in preparation for drawing a scientifically accurate drawing of your animal. The pictures were to be scanned, and put on our webpages The webpages will be filled with information, and the pictures will be filled with color and life. York 7 students would like to thank Mr. David Sparks, Maine Wildlife Park, Ms.Hubbell, Mrs.McDaniel and most of all our teachers who have helped us the whole way through.

It has been a great expedition, filled with excitement and knowledge, and even though next year, we’re going to some great eighth grade teachers, we’re going to miss great expeditions like this one.