ORONO – The school department recently was awarded a $519 grant to help fund a service learning project that is expected to reach across the community and involves Orono schools, the University of Maine and the town.

The grant from GreenWorks! will help fund the project that began more than two years ago when seventh-grade teacher Jessica Archer started using one of the vernal pools on Orono High School’s property as an outdoor lab for her pupils.

“It sort of has snowballed as something she does regularly,” service learning coordinator Deta Pearce said recently.

The GreenWorks! grant for service learning from Project Learning Tree, a multidisciplinary environmental education program for educators and students, will be used to purchase equipment that students can use in their research.

Service learning is a classroom approach that fosters civic engagement and citizenship in students by engaging them in authentic community problems, needs and concerns. It’s something that Orono schools are trying to get more involved with, Pearce explained.

The vernal pool research is an excellent step in that direction and is the first school and town collaboration at this level, according to those involved in the project.

A pool on the school’s property has been monitored for seven years by Maine Audubon Society volunteer John Maddus and University of Maine professor Aram Calhoun.

During the 2002-03 school year, Pearce began exploring how the school’s 80 acres could be used as an educational resource. The idea of creating an outdoor classroom led to discussions with Maddus, who volunteered to take Archer’s seventh-grade class on a field trip to the vernal pool.

“This being a wetland right in our back yard, it’s a great opportunity,” Archer said.

The next year, high-school science teachers Cindy Clay and Danielle O’Neill worked with Calhoun to create a project that would allow high-school students to assist UM graduate students with data collection and reporting. The students now are working on ways to present the information to the public.

“It seems like a win-win situation with the schools because our kids don’t often feel useful,” Calhoun said.

“We’re trying to determine the kind of information we want to obtain and how we want to present that publicly,” high-school environmental science teacher Danielle O’Neill said. Her class has been doing an ecological survey of the wetland.

In order to get the information out to the public, the Maine Audubon Society is sponsoring the creation of a pamphlet. Audubon is providing the pictures for the brochure, but the students will decide what information is included. The brochures will be used statewide to heighten awareness about vernal pools.

“The kids are really excited about it because they’re getting a chance to do some real science,” O’Neill said.

The students also have become photographers, mathematicians, and writers in order to record data collected from the vernal pool, O’Neill said.

“Some of the students that kind of begrudge taking science classes are really fired up,” O’Neill said, noting that they often work above and beyond what is required of them.

“What better way to teach ecology than to actually be out there experiencing it?” the teacher added.

Using data collected by the middle-school pupils and high-school students, as well as previous data from university studies, Calhoun has created a five-year plan to assess the town’s vernal pools and assign them a priority rating for management and conservation.

Orono is dotted with vernal pools, and, as the town continues to grow and develop, it’s important to educate people about their value, Calhoun said.

The only cost to the town is the aerial photography planned to map the vernal pools. Equipment being used by students will be paid for using the grant money.

“[The students] are quite, I think, invested in teaching others about this,” Archer said. “It’s something they can relate to because it’s something that’s right in their own back yards.”

The plan is extensive and treads on new ground, but those involved are convinced it will be a positive and educational experience for those involved.

“It’s a big plan, but I’m sure it can work,” Calhoun said.