Newport 7th Grader Published

Newport 7th grader, Aiden Horne, was published in Findings From The Field: Nature Notes, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s (GMRI) ecological journal, on Wednesday. The article, entitled, “Why Are NH Beaches Different Colors?” is the result of several months of work.

Aiden’s science teacher, Stephanie Scherr, attended a workshop from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in November. The workshop, held at the Seacoast Science Center, detailed how students could become engaged in scientific writing by adding a research component to nature observations. Ms. Scherr, who already had students engaging in autumn and spring nature observation journaling, saw this as an opportunity to increase writing skills while adding peer review to their scientific methodology.

From January to May, students developed scientific topics, engaged in research, peer reviewed each other and did multiple edits of their work. In the end, 17 students had work that was well polished and ready for submission to the Findings From The Field journal. Ms. Scherr commended all of the students who submitted work for their diligence and persistence in the pursuit of excellence in science. The 7th graders who submitted work are: Tyson DiPaola, Hailey Gardner, Aubrie Gosselin, Paige Hall, Hailey Hill, Aiden Horne, Riley Locke, Isaiah Mercado, Cameron Nerenburg, Glory Parker, Cory Richardson, Jesenya Santana, Jordan Sayer, Josh Seymour, Brennan Tabor, Abigail Tenney, Alidia Urista and John Wilkinson.

After submitting finalized work, the students still had more work to do. Each student peer-reviewed the work of two other students from a school in Maine, provided by GMRI staff. Articles only had the student’s first name on it and school was not identified. In turn, students from the other school reviewed the work of Newport students. When the process was complete, it was announced that Aiden Horne would have the honor of being published in the GMRI journal, Findings From The Field.

“This was a long process for students. They really had to commit to strong research, being reviewed in class by their own peers, do edit after edit over several months, and then release their work to be reviewed by students outside of their own state. They have now followed the rigorous scientific process and seen the results. I commend and thank them for striving for excellence in research writing. I would definitely have students participate in the program again.”