Students to establish trailhead in Buckfield

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CHILLY LESSONS — Science students Alyssa Therriault, left, and Lauren Henderson brave subzero temperatures to determine what type of forest biome surrounds the school on February 4.

I have a request in to get the names of the students in the picture.

BUCKFIELD — When the snow melts, Buckfield Middle School students are going to be hard at work in an effort to turn an old railroad bed into a valuable community resource.

A group of teachers are planning to integrate lesson plans into "Bucks on Track," an effort to build a trailhead kiosk and a walking trail that will provide rich learning opportunities for all who use it.

The effort will neatly complement other initiatives at the school. The trail along the railroad bed will connect with a three quarter-mile nature trail on school grounds, which, in turn, leads to a student-run garden project.

The trailhead will be established where the railroad bed intersects with High Street, and will run through town, behind Jesse's Gym, and to the school grounds.

"Community is important" is the lesson that Caleb McNaughton, a science teacher at the school, hopes children will take away from the unique learning experience.

"They'll be learning while doing, but also making the community a better place, and that's part of the service component of the program," said McNaughton.

As they build a kiosk, create educational materials, and develop and implement unique plans for inventive ways to use the trail, students will also be learning more traditional lessons.

A proposal that Language Arts Teacher Gretchen Kimball presented to the Buckfield Board of Selectmen on March 1, contained several examples of the academic lessons that can be learned through the project.

English lessons include writing educational materials, such as "leave no trace" statements, that will be posted along the trail.

Social Studies lessons include exploring the relationship between the unique environment of the area, and the way that it has been influenced by the local community's heritage.

Math students will use geometry to solve real-world problems as they determine values on the railroad bed.

Science lessons will include identifying different types of trees and learning about systems of biological classification.

There will also be lessons including web page creation, and artistic projects.

The exact details of the project, however, are only limited by the imaginations of the students involved.

"We want students to take ownership of this," said McNaughton, "so we'll be very open to ideas."

One creative idea is making "quests" along the trail that challenge trail users to achieve specific educational goals. For example, a proportional simulation of the solar system might be laid out on the trail.

Other teachers involved with the project include Lindsay Marston and Annette Caldwell. The four teachers were inspired by a learning initiative that encourages schools to build curriculum around the Appalachian Trail.

McNaughton sees the project as going on for years to come.

"It's definitely a continuing project," he said. "It will be in different phases. Each year, we'll try to build on the year before. Every group is going to have a totally different dynamic, and will take the project in a new direction."

McNaughton says that the trail is currently used by recreational vehicles, and that the program will not interfere with that usage.

"We want to get on board with what's already going on at the railroad bed," he said.