Students and teachers involved in the CREST program have found a wealth of information about two America's Cup crews from 1895 and 1899 that were comprised entirely of sailors from Deer Isle. The project's goal is to determine the sailors' lineage and to tell their stories. The students have used GPS to map out the sailors' gravesites, have conducted interviews, transcribed and indexed historical interviews with crew members, learned about boat-model construction, researched historical records, and traveled to the New York Yacht Club, Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, and the Herreshoff Museum in Rhode Island to conduct research.
In other activities, they have created GIS layers describing lobster-habitat characteristics in conjunction with the local lobster hatchery, and conducted spatial analysis of the survival rates of lobster larvae located in various ‘rooms' of the "lobster condos" that serve to incubate the larvae prior to release into the ocean.
Middle-school students created an "ABC book" for elementary students using GPS, GIS and digital photography to create a book of important places on the island, one for each letter of the alphabet. They also conducted interviews and created movies about elders in their community and what it was like to live on their island 50 and more years ago.