WATERBORO — In 2010, students in Pat Parent’s seventh-grade science class were studying invasive species and noticed a clump of purple loosestrife, an opportunistic plant that, if left alone, can spread like wildfire.

So the students monitored the plant, and a year later, another group of seventh-graders had a look. What they noticed, curiously, was that the clump hadn’t expanded, as loosestrife usually does. 

“The following year, we found out why,” said Parent, from his classroom at Massabesic Middle School on Thursday. What the students found was the gallerucella beetle, a non-native insect, having a loosestrife lunch.

“We don’t know how it got here, but it was munching on the plant,” said Parent.

This year’s crop of students will be examining the loosestrife next week. The big question, Parent said, is if the beetle survived the cold winter, and if not, is the plant expanding?

Parent, a teacher for 30 years and at Massabesic Middle School for 17 of them, was recognized Wednesday by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. He’s the first recipient of the McCarthy Award, given by the institute “for exemplifying leadership in science education.” The McCarthy Award is named after retired Unum CEO Kevin McCarthy, a long-time supporter of science education in Maine.

Parent introduced Vital Signs, an invasive species monitoring program of GMRI, to kids at the school.

“Pat has been tenacious, creative, flexible and extraordinary in the way he has implemented and integrated Vital Signs into his teaching,” said Sarah Kirn, GMRI’s Education Programs Strategist. “He jumped in feet first, leading his students’ science inquiry by his own example.”

Parent said the science program is successful because of a supportive principal, Mark Fisher, who allowed him to take the kids outside, where the plants are.

Parent, who lives in Limerick, remains passionate about science and teaching. His eyes light up when he talks about science and about how his students take to learning like ducks to water.

Other projects are also in the works; students are studying phenology with a program called Signs of the Season, reporting times in nature such as the date when the first daffodil blooms, and the like, and reporting their data to the University of Maine.

“It’s important,” said Parent, of the data collected. And while one can’t, with full confidence, say whether a plant blooming a week or two earlier now than five years ago is because of global warming, or some other reason, the earlier bloom does have an impact.

Parent’s students have also built small remote-controlled submarines called Sea Perch through a program with Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Now, they’re looking to adapt the submarine so it can monitor invasive aquatic plants. Students in the area are particularly aware of invasive water-based plants like milfoil, which has choked nearby Lake Arrowhead.

So they’re doing some engineering, thinking of ways they can get submarine can get through weedy areas without getting hung up, and how to see what’s in there. They’ve settled on an endoscopic camera that transmits images to a monitor, solving that issue, and are working on the rest.

“The idea is that they’re doing the engineering and problem solving. That’s the deal,” said Parent. “Experience solving problems will serve you well.”

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.