The event gives some 250 high school sophomores the opportunity to create research projects across a wide spectrum of topics. Last year’s winning projects studied the effects of different teaching styles; accuracy on goal in lacrosse; the efficacy of antibacterial hand sanitizers; and the efficiency of airfoils.

The projects are assessed by judges from Bates and the community.

Mandatory for 10th-graders at the high school, participation in the fair is beneficial in many ways, explains Laurie Haines, a science teacher at LHS and the event’s coordinator. Putting together a research project builds skills in problem solving and critical thinking, and in oral and written expression.

“Those students who take the fair seriously really gain an appreciation for the hard work that goes into solving scientific problems,” she says.

“The fair allows students to use the tools from their introductory courses to investigate something that they are interested in,” adds Andrew Kageleiry of Dover, N.H., one of the two Bates sophomores working with Haines. “While it’s important to learn about abstract concepts like atomic theory or DNA, these projects give the students a chance to tangibly pursue an idea of their own choosing.”

Kageleiry’s partner in the project is Colby Maldini of New Castle, N.H. Says Haines, “I could not run the fair without them. The event has evolved into a true partnership.”

The Bates coordinators, she explains, “create the spreadsheets for student projects, plan the gym placement of exhibits, register the students and most importantly, recruit numerous judges for the event.”

“Organizing an event like this is great experience for college students,” she says, adding that “our sophomores truly enjoy the interactions with the college students, and everyone who helps out has a positive influence on our student body.”

Winners will be invited to an afternoon at Bates, including lunch in Commons and a tour of the college’s science laboratories.

“The Center for Community Partnerships will ensure a sustainable link of the College’s academic mission to its commitment to service, and to mutually valuable partnerships with the community beyond the College — partnerships that bring benefits and support that otherwise would not be possible,” Harward said in remarks at a breakfast seminar of business, civic and health-care leaders from the Lewiston-Auburn community. “Our engagements with the community outside of the College have been true partnerships. They serve mutual, yet independent, interests that honor the integrity of both partners.”

The Center for Community Partnerships will consolidate existing and new programs, current and future collaborations, personnel and resources:

* The Center will enhance Bates’ focus on and support to service-learning. Service-learning at Bates goes beyond traditional volunteerism by incorporating community service into academic course work. Since 1995, more than half of the Bates student body has engaged in service-learning projects, while more than a third of the faculty has included a service component in their courses. In the last academic year, September 2000 to May 2001, Bates students participated in 53,547 hours of service in the local community. Bates enjoys national recognition, having successfully integrated academic excellence, with a model service-learning program involving nearly 150 community agencies and institutions.

* The Center will provide an ongoing institutional structure and resource for collaborations with the community, including LA Excels. A community-based strategic alliance founded in 1998, LA Excels is composed of colleges, schools, hospitals, municipal governments, arts organizations and businesses that work together to create a shared vision of excellence in community development. After two conventions involving more than 1,000 local citizens, LA Excels decided to champion plans that no single entity could accomplish, including: bringing Lewiston and Auburn together to develop a performing arts center, a community arts learning center, and a museum devoted to the area’s industrial and social heritage. It also supports an LA conference center, neighborhood housing improvements, green corridors and bicycle pathways linking the two cities, and projects to increase educational aspirations of local schoolchildren. In its second year, the Civic Institute is offering leadership training for area citizens and middle-school personnel. The Institute is supported by grants from the Wallace-Reader’s Digest Funds.

* The Center will align and support research projects by students and faculty that have application in the community — research that brings external support that otherwise would not occur. Examples include a student who developed a Geographical Information System for Lewiston and Auburn and saved the municipalities nearly $200,000 in labor and consultants’ fees. Another gave 34 students from Lewiston’s Longley Elementary School a chance to conduct hands-on science experiments with four Bates professors. Significant grant support from the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provide resources that enable these College and community collaborations.To reinforce its grounding in the academic life of the College, the director of the Center will work with the new President and under the direction of Dr. Jill Reich, Vice President for Academic Affairs and the lead academic officer of the College.

The Bates College Board of Trustees voted to create the Center and authorized a search for its first director at its meeting Oct. 27. The work of the Center will be supported by a new Board of Trustees Committee, confirming the centrality of its work to the mission of the College.

During Board discussion, Board Chairperson Burton Harris, among others, noted the importance of a lasting partnership between campus and community. “The fences, physical and metaphorical, have come down,” Harris said. “The College and its partner, the community, now have a direct, a sustainable, and a mutually-reinforcing relationship.

“The establishment of this Center, one of the most significant steps taken by the College, will assure the Lewiston-Auburn community that, as partners now and in the future, both the College and the community can reinforce their strengths, their mutually beneficial interactions and their missions of excellence.”

There will be two two-week camp sessions, weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The first session runs from July 6-17, and the second from July 20-31. The cost for each session will be $216. Sliding scale tuition and scholarship funding are available for qualified campers.

Children attending the Auburn Land Lab Summer Camp will explore the natural world, work in the community gardens and enjoy a variety of games and activities. Four Bates students, including sophomore Bridget Huber of Wells, junior Matt Schlobohm of West Springfield, Mass., sophomore Ethan Miller of Allentown, Pa., and sophomore Laurie McKenzie of Portland, Ore., will work with the children. The program also will present community members, including master gardeners and storytellers.

“We’re interested in sparking a sense of wonder about the natural world in children,” Huber said. “We also want to encourage them to feel a sense of empowerment, that it’s up to them to protect the environment.”

Grants to Bates College from the Howard Hughes Foundation will fund part of the camp operations and student salaries. Additional funding for Bates student salaries is provided by the Bates College Center for Service Learning.

The programs are a three-week workshop with members of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, leading to the annual Community Performance project; and the Youth Arts Program, three weeks of daily classes offering youngsters ages 6 to 16 a chance to learn dance and music with nationally acclaimed artists.

The annual Community Performance Project will be preceded by a three-week intensive workshop directed by choreographer-educators Peter DiMuro and Kimberli Boyd of the Lerman company. Twelve area residents, ages 17 and up, will be selected along with 12 Bates Dance Festival students to create and perform a new piece.

The workshop meets at Bates College weekdays from 4 to 6 p.m., July 29-Aug. 17.  Participants must be available to attend all classes for the three weeks.

No prior dance or performance experience is required, and all interested individuals are encouraged to apply.

The piece will be performed as part of the festival’s culminating concerts on Aug. 15 and 16 in Schaeffer Theatre.

The workshop is offered free of charge as part of the festival’s ongoing community outreach effort. Interested individuals must complete a project questionnaire, available through the festival office, by May 30.

DiMuro has been a performer and teacher with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange since 1993. He received the 1995 Public Service in the Arts Award presented by the mayor of Boston in recognition of his AIDS education and outreach work.

Boyd joined the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1988. As the troupe’s associate artistic director, she conducts theater performances and community-based residencies throughout the U.S., working with dancers, teachers, healthcare professionals and community workers.

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange is a multigenerational, Washington, D.C.-based organization composed of dancers who range in age from 20 to 75. The group leads community residencies across the country, involving people from all walks of life in an exploration of the expressive range of dance and theater performance and artmaking.

The Bates Dance Festival Youth Arts Program will take place July 29-Aug. 17 from 9 a.m. to noon each day at the Lewiston Recreation Center. The cost is $180.

The Youth Arts Program is three weeks of daily classes divided into three age groups: 6-9, 10-12 and 13-16. Students have a chance to learn a variety of dance and music styles and put together a show to perform in the final concert of the Bates Dance Festival.

Teacher Jane Weiner, from the Doug Elkins Dance Company, will instruct a combination of modern, ballet and hip hop. Musician Andrew Kushin, of the dance and music group Contraband, will teach music through rhythm and song. Master classes in creative movement and African dance also will be offered.

The Youth Arts Program is sponsored in partnership with the Lewiston Recreation Department.