Beverly's Landmark School Team Earns MIT Coastal Research Grant

BEVERLY, MA — A team of Landmark School students of Beverly earned a prestigious Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams grant to help study the coastline near the school's campus at Prides Crossing.

The nine-student team, which includes members from Danvers and Swampscott, was among 13 teams nationwide award honored this year. This is the third time Landmark has received the grant.

The team will present its progress and solicit feedback at a free virtual community event Thursday at 6:30 p.m. here.

The invention is a marine data survey collector placed off the coast on a fixed buoy that collects air, temperature, barometric pressure, water salinity, wind speed, water temperature and acidity and turbidity at the water surface, 10 feet down and on the ocean floor.

The buoy fixed to the ocean floor within two miles of the coach will allow for continually uploaded data in a way that gets interrupted when free-floating buoys get damaged or lost.

The team is collaborating with Beverly Public Schools, Division of Marine Fisheries of Massachusetts, Northeastern University's Marine Science Center in Nahant and the Salem Sound Coastwatch.

"It's been exciting to see our students dive headfirst into researching projects that we could propose to the Lemelson-MIT program and to see so many be recognized with a grant to help us execute our vision," Landmark teacher Doug Walker and co-teacher Dan Crossman said. "This project is particularly rewarding since we are able to share our data with other local organizations allowing them to learn from what we collect, develop solutions to a range of environmental challenges and to continually innovate."

The team consists of Julia Bottarelli, soph., of Manchester; Ethan Cadorette, jr., of Swampscott; Cole Drouin, soph. of Andover; Matt Favreau, jr., Danvers; Nikolaus Guthrie, jr. of North Andover; Ryan Johanson, sr., North Andover; Stephen Lukasiewicz, jr. Winchester; Jake Lunder, sr., Weston; Caitlin Rattray, soph., Gloucester.

"Since 2006, the InvenTeam initiative has been changing the way educators teach and providing young people — especially young women and students from underrepresented backgrounds - with creative problem-solving skills to flourish in college and career for over 15 years," explained Stephanie Couch, Executive Director of Lemelson-LMIT.

More about the program can be found here.