Robbins honored with prestigious award at annual MIAAA conference

 

Belfast Area High School athletic director Susan Robbins. 

Courtesy of Kari Sawyer

ROCKPORT — Susan Robbins has been building a long-lasting legacy in her field — that being in the realm of high school athletic directors — for a quarter century.

And the longtime administrator — currently in her first year in that position at her alma mater of Belfast Area High School — was honored with the Martin Ryan, CMAA Award of Excellence by the Maine Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association at the organization’s annual conference earlier this month at the Samoset Resort.

The award is named after Martin Ryan, who worked as a teacher, coach and administrator in the state for 29 years and was the president of the MIAAA for over 20 years before he passed away in 2021.

It recognizes years of service at the league, regional and state levels, with a particular emphasis in Maine athletics.

Robbins, who had a close relationship with Ryan during her time on the executive board as the associate director for certification and leadership training, said “I’m very proud to have earned this honor in his name.”

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BMI students experience hands-on history, science

 

BELFAST — Belfast Area High School students in Chip Lagerbom and Genna Black’s Marine Studies class recently visited a foreshore shipwreck here as part of their unit on Maritime Archaeology.

Foreshore wrecks are accessible and can be visited at low tide. The class arrived with an underwater metal detector to record iron ship spikes among the wooden futtocks, or stringers, as well as those along the keelson and keel, the backbone lengths of wood that hold a ship together.

They were also responsible for photos, sketches, field notes and collection of artifacts.

Students were tasked with creating hypotheses as to the kind or type of vessel, what it was used for, its age, and its fate — how it ended up where it is.

Then they were to provide evidence they researched, found, recorded or collected that supports their hypotheses, as well as produce a detailed scale drawing of the wreck’s current status.

This has been a long-term research project, visiting this particular wreck for over 15 years, and it is now part of the Belfast Marine Institute’s initiative called the Floating Classroom, to get students involved in, on and under the waters of Penobscot Bay.

For more information or to contact the Belfast Marine Institute, visit https://bahsmarineinstitute.rsu71.org.

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The Lion Roars by Nevyn Harvey

 

The journal team at Belfast High School.

BEFLAST — As warmer days start rolling in, Belfast Area High School continues to develop its first-ever Literary Journal: Rites of Passage.

After five years as only an idea lodged in an English teacher’s mind, the Literary Journal commenced this past January. Three staff members — Cassandra Kromer, Scarlett Peebles and Nevyn Harvey — were selected from the senior class to unite visual and written arts by BAHS and BCOPE students.

Belfast Area High School English teacher Douglas McIntire is the project adviser.

“Ideally, it’s going to be a reflection of the artistic abilities, the thoughts, and the feelings of the students here in this community,” McIntire said. “I want it to reflect not only the students, their work, and their art, but I want them to see their art as a quality product.”

McIntire had looked through college-level literary journals before. This past year he got the opportunity to help judge a national competition among high school student journals, inspiring him to launch the first Literary Journal at BAHS.

The journal’s name, Rites of Passage, was chosen by the group to represent the transition from adolescence to young adulthood in high school. It will highlight themes of coming-of-age and life experiences.

All mediums of art are being considered, whether they be stories, poetry, photography, sculpted work, paintings… The list goes on!

Students are learning using Google and Adobe software, including InDesign and Photoshop. Because it is the first year, the staff members make sure to log their work in a spreadsheet. The goal is to have the Literary Journal printed and bound in actual magazine material, rather than regular 8.5 by 11-inch printer paper.

The three staff members can only work with McIntire for two periods every other day, so they make sure to do as much as they can out of class as well. They expect to be busier as weeks go by and more submissions come in.

McIntire and his crew hope to have a finished product before graduation. In order to do so, however, they have to make sure enough student art is being submitted. The staff members pitch their journal to teachers and students to advertise its existence. This includes setting up meetings, sending and receiving floods of emails, and having a social media presence.

To the group’s benefit, there have been a lot of positive student and staff responses to the Literary Journal. Students have actively engaged with the journal’s Instagram page and teachers continue to contribute a lot to advertising and encouraging their classes to consider the opportunity.

Rites of Passage staff member Cassandra Kromer has big aspirations for the journal. “I hope that it makes students feel proud and accomplished in their work because so many people in this school community are so talented but aren’t comfortable or have never been invited to share that talent,” she said.

The project opens another opportunity for students interested in the arts. Writing and sharing art make students feel vulnerable, but it is also rewarding, so the group hopes that students will take advantage of this.

Since the journal’s start in January, the staff members are happy to note that they have learned many life skills that will help them through post-secondary education, careers, and beyond. Teamwork, working under pressure, leadership, marketing, communication and resilience were mentioned in particular.

Rites of Passage staff member Scarlett Peebles said, “Learning to work together as a cohesive, but small group is really valuable to take into life, especially for the future when you have to work on other group projects and work in small groups.”

Rites of Passage will pave the way for future opportunities in the collaboration of language and arts, recognize the beauty of arts in school, and build life skills for those involved in the Belfast school community.

Check out the Literary Journal’s Instagram page: @bahsritesofpassage

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BCOPE students enter Maine State Science Fair virtually

 

BELFAST — This past weekend, BCOPE students participated in the Maine State Science Fair for the first time. The school had four entrants, three of whom were able to present virtually when the fair went online at the last minute because of the stormy weather.

The students worked for several months, determining research questions, designing their projects, collecting data, writing abstracts, and reviewing their results. Over 250 students across 24 schools participated. BCOPE's student projects were as follows:

Isaac Cummings, Fish Feces vs. Fertilizer; Joey Davis, Hot, Hot, Hot — Does Water Temperature Affect Pepper Growth in Hydroponics; October Patterson, Soil vs. Hydroponics — Know What You Grow and Know What You are Growing; and Eric Nason, Anchors Away — Finding solutions to grow vining plants hydroponically.

Isaac, October and Eric presented to a panel of judges via Zoom Saturday morning.

Eric Nason’s project received one of the MSSF’s special awards sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Special awards are given across categories to recognize student achievement.

BCOPE thanks everyone who supported the students' involvement in the Maine State Science Fair.

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