UFOs Absent

The 3rd Annual Findings from the Field Student Research Symposium, hosted by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and NASA's Learning Ecosystems Northeast project, took place on March 30, 2026. The event featured 106 students, 29 educators, and 15 Subject Matter Experts, with 68 research posters, 14 lightning talks, and 5 discussion sessions.

This year's symposium introduced several shifts in how students interacted with science experts, data, and each other. Students engaged in an activity inspired by the Data Vandals art group, marking up visuals and treating data as a living conversation. The physical layout of small discussion groups positioned student scientists as professionals, with adults and SMEs sitting behind them.

A keynote speech by Dr. Dave Reidmiller, Chief Impact Officer at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, emphasized that science is a team sport. This idea was reinforced in discussion groups, where students realized that scientific inquiry isn't isolated. The symposium also featured undergraduate students as mentors, making the path to a scientific career feel reachable. Students practiced communicating their work to an audience of peers and professional scientists. The event showed that youth are experts too, with one student confidently answering a question posed to a SME.