For nearly two decades, students at James F. Doughty School have been investigating invasive crab species along the Maine coast. What began in 2006 has become a long-term citizen-science research project, giving generations of students the opportunity to collect real scientific data and contribute to our understanding of Maine’s coastal ecosystems.

• Grade 7 and 8 accelerated science students returned to our research site tucked along Penobscot Bay.

• Working in small research teams, students established 10 m × 2 m transects and carefully searched each area for crabs. Every crab collected was examined, measured, and identified to species, before returning the animals to the environment.

• This year, students collected an impressive 223 green crabs.

• The project has also come full circle in a special way. Two former students, now high school STEM Academy seniors, returned to the field as chaperones. Having participated in the research themselves when they were younger, they were able to share their experience and help guide the next generation of student scientists.

One of the most interesting findings from our nearly 20 years of research is what we haven’t found. Despite collecting and identifying thousands of crabs over the years, we have never found an Asian shore crab at this particular site. Asian shore crabs are an invasive species that have expanded their range along portions of the Atlantic coast, making their absence from our long term study site an important observation.

For our students, this is more than a field trip. They are practicing the work of real scientists, asking questions, collecting evidence, identifying organisms, analyzing data, and contributing to a research project that has continued for 20 years and counting.