Pre-Summer Mini Conferences
Plans are underway for our regional two-day mini-conferences. They willbe conducted – one in the Maritimes and one in Concord, NH.
The Maritimes event is scheduled for April 30/May 1 and will be hosted by the Shelburne High School team.
CBI Summer Workshop 2011
Newburyport will host the 2011 International Summer Workshop at the Governor’s Academy, Byfield, Massachusetts. Summer 2011 will mark the eleventh anniversary of GOMI. The mayor of Newburyport will open the session and welcome participants. We expect one hundred people in residence, including teams from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and a teacher intern component of approximately ten. New teams will include Laconia, New Hampshire; Saint John, New Brunswick; and a Maine team.
A planning advisory committee, composed of GOMI team leaders and youth, is in place and meeting regularly with John Halloran, our Science Director and Newburyport team leader. The committee’s tasks include developing and implementing a media campaign.
Up Down Under Initiative
The Up Down Under initiative was developed in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Parker River National Refuge, Tufts University, Newburyport Public Schools, and New Hampshire PlusTime. UDU GOMI is currently composed of teams from Laconia and Concord, New Hampshire and Newburyport, MA. Concord and Lowel MA will soon be joining this effort. Water quality testing is high on their agenda and is quite quite inclusive and includes measuring for pharmaceutical contaminants such as Estrogens. A recent study by Matt Orlando and Pete Furlong, members of the Newburyport team, found excessive levels of the hormone in all 22 water sources sampled.
Currents and the Websites
Currents will continue to be published electronically. We will continue to broaden Currents’ appeal to include educators, scientists, planners and politicians while at the same time carrying the torch for experiential place-based environmental education.
The gulfofmaineinstitute.org site is being revamped to contain a wealth of detailed information about our organization that will be primarily of interest to potential funders of the program.