Third graders in Mrs. Emery’s class immersed themselves in an expeditionary style of learning to end our school year with a great deal of lobster education. We had two essential questions to answer: “Are lobsters important to the town of Wiscasset?” and “How are lobsters unusual creatures?"

We used "Does a Lobsterman Wear Pants?" by Barbara Belinsky as our anchor text. It was full of exciting and interesting information. We read many other books and watched videos about the North American lobster. Then students studied two live lobsters to learn the anatomy of the lobster and how the body parts function. As a result, they have been practicing labeling lobster diagrams, as scientists do when they do observations.

Our first speaker was our very own secretary Cindy Collamore. Her family owns and runs Red’s Eats. She talked about the history of Red’s, that for some Maine families lobstering is a tradition passed down from one generation to the next, and the economics of the lobstering industry. She was very informative and we learned that the lobstering industry brings in more than a billion dollars to the state of Maine. Through our research, we found out that in 2012, 1.8 billion dollars was brought into our state by the lobster industry. That answered our first essential question.

Our next speaker, Tim Miller, our ocean biologist from the Darling Center, joined us to teach about the life of Maine lobsters. He taught us information about conservation efforts that have helped lobsters remain plentiful and many more interesting facts about lobsters. He brought in an enormous lobster that was no longer alive that we were able to touch. We were so excited to learn from a real scientist. 

PJ Fairfield, a lobsterman, was our last speaker. He was my former student and one of my very favorites! It was so great to have him come back to my classroom.  He taught us all about the tools of the lobstering trade and what it is like to be a lobsterman. The students especially liked the huge lobster trap that he brought and the stories of the interesting creatures that he has caught in his traps!

Plans called for parent volunteers to help the students learn how to pick and eat a lobster, the correct way.  Then the students were scheduled to have a chance to taste lobster, some for the first time.

Our culminating project will be restaurant placemats that include the many unusual facts that we have learned about lobsters during our research. For example, did you know that lobsters inhale through their legs, and exhale through their heads? Amazing!

Thanks to all of our wonderful volunteer speakers and volunteers.