About the Challenge:

For the last few years, GSA Honors and History Teacher Caroline Richards has been leading her students through the Mainer Challenge. This year-long activity encourages students to tackle a series of challenges that encourage them to get outside, interact with their community, and connect with what it means to live in Maine. Caroline notes, “They research and they explore; they talk; and they participate in their community.” 

Students choose from a list of close to 50 activities, documenting each challenge as they complete it. Some of the challenges are mostly for fun: “Take a picture dressed as Paul Bunyan at the Paul Bunyan statue;” “Climb a Maine mountain while carrying a piece of wood decorated to look like a lobster, bigger than the smallest person you climb with;” or, “Make a Maine dish and give it someone.”

But most of the challenges are more serious: “Visit a town meeting in your town or another town on the Peninsula”; “Stay outside from sunrise to sunset;” “Interview a Mainer over 60 about a Maine childhood memory;” or “Interview a business owner with less than 50 employees about the best and hardest things about their business.” According to Caroline, one of the most popular challenges in recent years has been “Harvest a meal and eat it.” She notes, “We have gardeners here. We have foragers here. We have hunters here. And they are so proud that they’re able to help feed their families.”

Richards updates the list of challenges every year, but there is always a common thread. The challenges are designed to get students to learn, step outside of their comfort zone, be self-directed, and be responsible, active citizens. A key outcome is for kids to better understand all that their communities have to offer, as Richard describes: “This is what is available in your town. Isn’t it awesome? And the people in your town. Aren’t they grand? I think that might be the heart of the project – community.”

At the end of the year, students present their completed challenges to their classmates – a project that involves a serious amount of writing if you complete 30 plus challenges, as you must write a paragraph for each. Students are graded on the number of challenges they complete and the quality of their write-ups. The presentations become “an archive of self-generated learning in my class over the course of an entire school year,” Richards says, “which is so neat to see.” Although students can get a good grade by selecting challenges that can be done through online research, the intent is to get students out in their communities. But Richard notes that there is something for everyone on the list. “There are creative ones for the artists, research ones for the researchers, outdoors ones for the outdoorsy ones, and everything in between.”

While students learn about their communities and about Maine, Richards shares that her favorite part of the Challenge is what she learns about her students: their passions, their involvement in their communities, and their skills and creativity. Richards hopes that the community will get more involved in the Mainer Challenge program in the future. As word continues to get out about the program, she hopes that community members will better understand “how cool these kids are and what they’re doing. And you might not notice, but the reason our trails are cleaned up is because kids have been through there, and the youngest people on the fire department aren’t in their 20s – they’re teens from GSA.”

This program is just one example of the many ways that GSA seeks to connect students to their community. To find out more about the Mainer Challenge, or if your business or organization would like to participate, please reach out to Caroline Richards at c.richards@georgestevens.org.

1 Explore something weird/unusual!
2 Take a picture/video next to the oldest_____________________________ in Maine. (Don't use our Twinkie, please)
3 Hike one of Maine Coast Heritage Trust's trails or another marked trail.
4 Visit one of Maine's Fairs or Festivals
5 Make ONE of the following: a Whoopie Pie, a Blueberry Pie, a Needham, a Seadog Biscuit, or Indian Pudding and give it to someone you love.
6 Take the most Mainer Maine picture in the most Maine place-evah!!!!
7 Visit a town meeting in your town or another town on the Blue Hill peninsula.
8 Interview a Mainer over 60 about a Maine childhood memory.
9 Head outside and engage in an activity you've NEVER tried before, (Geocatching, birding, snowshoeing, etc...)
10 Honor a veteran living or dead from your town or the Blue Hill peninsula.
11 Interview a local business owner with over 50 employees and ask them about the best and hardest things about their business.
12 Visit your local fire station/public safety building and find out what it takes to be a volunteer firefighter.
13 Read an Ellsworth American or a Bangor Daily Newspaper from the week you were born.
14 Take a picture near the coolest______________________________ in Maine.
15 Shake hands with the most famous person in Maine, (this is subjective).
16 Participate in a Maine competition-think: run, bike, swim, chowder cook-off,  pie bake-off, etc...
17 Create a Christmas ornament that a tourist would think 'Maine!' and might buy...then try and sell it!
18 Visit a Maine museum, (the Boston Museum of Fine Art is ok for this challenge).
19 Visit a historical site and ask a TON of not-annoying questions.
20 Learn-by heart!-all the Maine counties and their seats.
21 Interview a  business owner with less than 50 employee about the best AND hardest things about their business.
22 Take a tour of a Maine college/university.
23 Write and send a letter to your local representative in Augusta about a concern you have...or call them and talk to them...or visit them and talk to them.
24 Take a picture or video of Maine wildlife.
25 Pick a Maine charity/organization you think is doing great work and help them in some way.
26 Take a fun picture with as many common Mainer-invented items as you can.
27 Read a great Maine-authored short story.
28 Watch any movie set in Maine...and critique how accurate the location is!
29 Read a children's book by a Maine author to a child or a group of children.
30 Read or listen to a Stephen King short story in a dark room or outside on a dark night using the light of a flashlight or camping lamp.
31 Climb a Maine mountain while carrying the following: a piece of wood decorated to look like a lobster bigger than the smallest person you climb with.
32 Create a visual timeline of Maine history using archival photographs.
33 Create a crafted object with birch bark, balsam fir, or white pine or Upcycle an item.
34 Harvest a meal-and eat it!
35 Memorize and recite a Maine-authored poem.
36 Walk out your door one early morning day and don't go inside any building until dark, (except to use the bathroom or pick-up food).
37 Listen to a new album by a Maine artist or group.
38 Visit a Maine State park or our one National Park or our one National Monument.
39 Listen to a Maine developed and/or focused podcast.
40 Milton Bradley was born in Maine.  Grab a game invented by his company, invite family/friends over...and play!
41 Take a beautiful Maine picture and create postcards or holiday cards with it.
42 Take a picture dressed as Paul Bunyan at the Paul Bunyan statue.
43 Spend two hours in a boat on the water.
44 Your own idea.
45 Your own idea.