It's more than a building. That was the point speakers made at the May 1 dedication of Maine Maritime Academy's new ABS Center for Engineering, Science and Research.

This fall, the Frenchboro School studied island history and ecology. As the makeshift social studies and science teacher at the two-student school, I tried to design lessons that would put the kids into the wildness of their island's past.

Picture in your mind a cargo ship and an aircraft carrier, one 900-feet and the other 1,200-feet-long and both 20 stories tall, traveling through the ocean only 100 yards away from each other.

When I was in my 20s and 30s, free time was a rare commodity. When it was available and the weather cooperated, my wife and I loaded the kids in the van and explored the Maine coast.

At the end of June, Donna Damon, 65, will retire from Greely High School in Cumberland, where she works in a classroom helping students deemed average to above-average achieve their full academic potential. She also will step down from serving as selectman on Chebeague Island.

These firefighters must overcome their discomfort, though, because a fire roars in the galley of the training ship State of Maine. At least, it does in theory.

Work is underway to build headers and cut lumber to make studs, part of a volunteer effort to construct a Habitat for Humanity house.

While most will picture a group of adults doing the work, for past nine years, it's been students at Mount Desert Island High School enthusiastically providing the labor. The students have enrolled in a semester-long Habitat for Humanity class to build walls for homes in Hancock County.

Tracking salmon, sturgeon, and great whites from lobster traps and buoys may soon be possible. Researchers have talked about their success deploying acoustic receivers for fish, marine mammal and shark tags in lobster traps and on buoys. The receivers pick up a distinct acoustic signal if the tag (and the animal wearing it) pass within 400 meters.

Maine Maritime Academy has hired Michael Young of Ellsworth, a 1977 MMA graduate and previous instructor at the college to develop courses and programs to prepare students for jobs in offshore industries.