Project Overview

This book was created by students at King Middle School in Portland, Maine as part of a Learning Expedition called Alien Invaders.

Students began by looking as two case studies as a class, including field research. Then students worked in teams to complete their own case studies of twenty invasive species of plants and animals that are affecting the economy and ecology of Maine. The book includes a thorough introduction that defines invasive species, and explores how they are introduced to the ecosystem and what the state is doing to control their effects. The following chapter explains how students incorporated their invasive species work into all their classes, including math, language arts, and science. Each case study describes the invasive species, its environmental impacts, economic impacts, and the efforts being made to control the invasive population.