MILLINOCKET – Science students at Stearns High School, like those in seven other Maine high schools across the state, are doing a lot more these days than just looking through microscopes for single-cell organisms.

They are learning how to extract DNA and test for Lyme disease thanks to a new three-year ScienceCorps Program that is completing its first year. The program is a collaborative effort between the University of Southern Maine’s department of applied medical sciences and the Foundation for Blood Research.

Officially, its success is still being evaluated, but Stearns students are excited about the new program.

“It was an unbelievable and a really, really good experience for me,” said Rebecca Morse, a junior, who said this year’s program convinced her to become a nurse. “It really opened my eyes to the options there are in the medical field.”

Nicole Davis, a sophomore, agreed. “I learned a lot,” said Davis. “It was one of the best things we have ever done.”

Dave Wilkins, a Stearns biology teacher who was instrumental in bringing the program to Millinocket, said it has provided unique “inquiry-based” labs to about 55 students. He said students used the same techniques and equipment that experts would use.

Wilkins said students were given a problem and did lab work to solve it. One problem was that people were lost in the World Trade Center after two planes crashed into the buildings. He said students had to figure out how they would identify the missing people by using DNA. Students also learned about testing for Lyme disease, a debilitating illness transmitted primarily through tick bites.

“They were using equipment that just blew them away,” said Wilkins about the students. “They were impressed that they were doing something very unique.”

Stearns Principal Paul MacDonald said the new program has provided students with more opportunities. “It provides our students with cutting-edge experiences in science that they would not have been able to have if not for the ScienceCorps Program,” he said. “It just gives them options that they didn’t have before.”

S. Monroe Duboise, an assistant professor of applied medical sciences at USM, said he has received many enthusiastic comments from teachers about the ScienceCorps Program.

“The program has allowed them to include laboratory activities for their classes that would not have been possible otherwise,” said Duboise. “Some of the comments from the teachers and observations of the fellows lead us to believe that the lab activities have been engaging for a wide range of students.”

He said some teachers also commented that their students benefited from having graduate student fellows in the classroom as role models. He said the program has added a new dimension to fellows graduate training, and it is hoped that the Bangor Daily News will encourage students to participate in educational outreach activities throughout their scientific careers.

Duboise said the eight schools would continue to participate in the program next year. He said the number of graduate students will double, from four to eight, which will allow them to visit the high schools more frequently and to provide additional lab activities.

“We have also started developing additional labs and activities in microbiology and epidemiology that will also be used in the future,” said Duboise. He added that the labs and activities are aligned with the Maine Learning Results to help the teachers meet state standards in their classrooms.

“The ScienceCorps Program can be particularly beneficial in enriching biological sciences education in underfunded rural schools with activities and lab resources that might otherwise be unavailable,” he said.

In addition to Stearns in Millinocket, the program also is offered at Caribou High School, Central Aroostook in Mars Hill, Katahdin in Sherman, Medomak Valley in Waldoboro, Messalonskee in Oakland, Oxford Hills in Paris and at Skowhegan Area High School.