The BDN profiles a team of midcoast innovators responsible for a Maine-made, 90 MPG car. The 120 pound vehicle sports a frame of wood and metal and traveled from Iowa to California in a rally last year.

Builder Bill Buchholz:

“Everywhere I went, people came out to look and ask questions,” he said. “They were all positive. It gave me hope that people are thinking about this as a major issue.”

Read more: 90 miles per gallon? Maine-built three-wheeler shows it’s possible

Edutopia visits King Middle School and Casco Bay High School in Portland to see how students are using one-to-one laptop programs for a large variety of projects. The video of their visit features educators and students talking about their project-based, expeditionary learning approach and how the schools have benefited from their experience.

Read more: Project Learning in Maine, Schools That Work

There’s a shift happening in the plastics industry. Traditional petroleum-based plastic products are being replaced by varieties that are more environmentally-friendly – including bioplastics products made from corn. I’ve noticed more and more compostable or biodegradable plastic products over the last couple of years, and it means less oil used in production and fewer stubborn products in landfills.

Comapanies in Maine are capitalizing on the change. MPBN visited Biovation, located in Boothbay, to talk about their corn-based plastic production line.

They also speak with Environmental Health Strategy Center director Mike Belliveau, who points to another potential gold mine for the state:

Before the end of this year we will be able to hold plastic pellets in our hands that were made from Maine potatoes.

Read more: New Technology Allows Maine Organization to Create a New Material

Mashable outlined six lessons learned in a post last month about the one-to-one technology education program known as the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Sarah Kessler provides a great overview of the program and some of the outcomes – both challenges and rewards – of the implementation in schools across the state. Skowhegan tech integrator Michael Muir:

“It’s very exciting because it’s now a part of the culture of teaching middle school in Maine … that all the kids have laptops and you teach with technology, and it’s exciting because it’s no longer the new thing.”

Tech literacy is crucial as part of an educational curriculum. The MLTI gives Maine students a great advantage as they learn to work and compete in an increasingly tech-centric world.

Read more: School Tech: Important Lessons From Maine’s Student Laptop Program

News about Maine wind power isn’t just limited to offshore generation. NStar, Massachusetts’ the state’s second-largest utility, chose Eastbrook’s Blue Sky East wind farm as one of three new power sources for the company. The Eastbrook wind farm is set to be operational in May 2012. ABC News ran an Associated Press story with details about how Cape Wind’s loss is a gain for Maine.

Read more: Big Mass. Utility Signs Deals, Bypasses Cape Wind

Following up on the release of an offshore wind report by the DeepCwind Consortium, Offshore Wind Wire provides more information about what the newly-released information means to potential developers. Writing for Offshore Wind Wire, Preti Flaherty’s Todd Griset notes the collaboration between public institutions and private companies and mentions some of the requirements set forth in the document.

Read more: ANALYSIS: Maine Offshore Wind Report Gives Developers a Big Boost

It’s a big week for wind in Maine. On Tuesday the University of Maine released an extensive report to offer details about their proposal of building a number of offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine. The report follows a request for proposals sent to developers last September, and UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center director Dr. Habib Dagher wants companies to use the information to develop a 30-megawatt pilot project that combines wind and tidal power.

The DeepCwind Consortium believes that over time, the Gulf of Maine could produce as much as five gigawatts of power. That’s approximately five times the generating capacity of the now-defunct Maine Yankee and almost forty times that of the Kibby Mountain project, the largest wind farm in Maine.

Read more: UMaine officials woo offshore wind firms

Mainebiz interviews Paul Howell of Westbrook’s Howell MSI about how he’s using his knowledge of photography and light to explore multispectral imaging, a relatively new form of archiving that allows a high-tech scanner to preserve multiple layers of an artifact without causing any damage to the original.

Howell’s technology is backed by an MTI seed grant. It will be used to preserve 19th century slides for UNE and Bowdoin, and he may have a chance to extend his work to institutions like the Smithsonian in the future.

Read more: Flash forward

Construction is underway in Surry on Five Friends, a new boat for Bar Harbor’s College of the Atlantic. The BDN visits to learn how it will improve learning and research operations at the school:

The goal in building the newer, bigger boat is to have a vessel that is more conducive to academic instruction and research, college officials said in a press release. It is being built with a 6-foot draft so it can maneuver in shallow water, and with significant soundproofing so classes can be conducted on deck while the boat is underway.

The work that COA does with students and with their Allied Whale program benefits the Gulf of Maine every day. Their stations at Mount Desert Rock and Great Duck Island aren’t for the faint of heart.

Read more: COA commissions new vessel for marine programs

Climate Central details Colby College’s plans to cut the campus’s oil consumption by ninety percent next year by generating electricity with biomass. Colby hopes to use material sourced within fifty miles of Waterville and to use only tree and mill waste created during the production of wood products.

Colby’s project is a good example of using the byproducts of Maine industry in beneficial ways.

Read more: Colleges Turn to Biomass to Cut Emissions