Project Overview

This guide to the intertidal zone was created by 7^th grade students from the King Middle School in Portland, Maine, as part of a Learning Expedition called, “In the Zone.” Shown here is the high-tide volume for Kettle Cove, part of Casco Bay; students also produced a mid and low-tide volume. The purpose for three volumes was to allow each student in a large middle school grade level team to have an individual page to create.

Students did fieldwork at the cove to gain first-hand knowledge of the intertidal zones. Each student was responsible for studying and researching a particular species within the intertidal zone. As much as possible, research was done by collecting and observing the species first-hand at the bay, rather than through books or internet sources.

This is an alphabet book for younger students, with each letter representing a plant, animal or geographical feature of the intertidal zone. Illustrations were meant to be appealing to younger students and therefore were done in a cartoon-like fashion. Writing is whimsical and yet informative – personifying and animating the species represented.

At the end of the book, students also included basic factual information about each entry, which nicely complements the alphabetical entries. Finally, students included a bibliography of references they used.

During their expedition, students were involved in water quality testing, and learned about pollution and the impact of the cruise ship industry on the intertidal zones in their area.

A different student product from this same expedition – a traditional field guide - produced in a different year by a different group of 7^th graders from the school, can be found in this archive as project #211.