ORONO – Public school students in Orono, Veazie, Milford and Old Town will get firsthand science lessons from Asia and Africa through a National Science Foundation program at the University of Maine. Three UMaine graduate students and three Bangor area schoolteachers who participate in the program are studying this summer in Japan and Kenya.

After returning to Maine, they will develop units on Japanese coastal ecosystems and the Kenyan rain forest to be used in science classes served by the NSF fellowship program during the 2002-2003 school year. The program supports the graduate studies of 12 outstanding science and mathematics students at UMaine who work with 24 K-12 teachers in four school districts.

The three teachers and three students participating in the international component this summer are engaged in short research projects with Japanese and Kenyan biologists and in classroom teaching in K-12 schools.

Danielle Oakes of Orono High School and marine sciences graduate student Sarah Kirn of Portland are working in Japan with Yasuwo Fukuyo, a professor at the University of Tokyo, on the subject of red tides, also known as harmful algal blooms. Oakes teaches forensic science and biology, including marine biology. Kirn conducts research on organisms that cause red tides in the Gulf of Maine.

Studying in Kenya are third grade teacher Monica Doing of the Lewis S. Libby School in Milford and Lauree Gott, a middle school science teacher at the Veazie Community School. They are joined by NSF Fellows and UMaine graduate students Steven Campbell of East Syracuse, N.Y., and Shelly Thomas of Wellsboro, Pa. Campbell lives in Old Town and is in the department of wildlife ecology. Thomas lives in Orono and is in the ecology and environmental sciences program.

An environmental group, A’Rocha Kenya, is host to the Maine teachers and scientists. They will visit schools to present lessons on Maine’s ecosystems and classification of plants and animals.

They will leave for Kenya July 20 and return to Maine Aug. 25.