NOBLEBORO – As lakefront property prices rise, concerns are growing in Maine that the state’s lakes will become so polluted and ringed with homes that they’ll stop drawing tourists.

That would drain away an estimated $1.2 billion spent by vacationers who come to fish, boat and swim in the thousands of lakes dotting the state.

Now, a nonprofit group is trying a novel approach to protecting the lakes: getting kids involved.

By taking its message to youths, the Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute hopes to cultivate a generation of stewards who will look after the lakes years in the future.

“We are trying to instill a sense of wonder in the students about the lakes,” said Shippen Bright, a Harvard Kennedy School graduate who founded the institute three years ago in Nobleboro. “Education is key. It changes perceptions.”

The conservancy has teamed up with nine middle schools across the state, working with teachers to map out intensive curriculums. It gives lessons to a wide range of civic and youth groups around Maine.

The institute also provides technical support and field trips on a 30-foot mobile floating classroom that’s laden with scientific equipment and study aids.

From the boat, students can poke an underwater video camera down to a lake’s bottom. Equipment tests dissolved oxygen in the water, a key barometer of a lake’s health. Students can sample water, silt and mud.

In northern Aroostook County, Eagle Lake Elementary School seventh-graders last year built a buffer of plants, grasses and shrubs to prevent sediment and chemicals from entering Eagle Lake, then conducted testing on the lake.

“It was great to see the kids’ ownership of the lake,” said teacher Lucy Devoe, who plans to continue the curriculum. “They really know how to watch for water-quality issues now.”

Unlike in Massachusetts, where most lakes have vigilant watchdogs through town government and nonprofit groups, the sheer number of Maine lakes can make people think it’s an infinite resource, Bright told the Boston Sunday Globe.

Maine has a Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, which relies on local residents to test water quality. It suffered severe budget cuts in the early 1990s, and despite a slight resurgence of funds in recent years, the program tests fewer lakes than it did before the cuts.

“That is a problem,” Bright said. “If the water quality is diminished, we know the lakefront property values will go, then the municipality is not receiving much in property taxes. People care about that.”