UNITY -- Tell a kid about a forest and he may remember just long enough to pass the next test.

Take a kid to the forest, have him touch it, analyze it and monitor it, and you may spark an interest in learning that will last a lifetime.

"It prepares kids to be future citizen-scientists," said Jay science teacher Rob Taylor during a break from Tuesday's Forest Inventory Growth reunion at Unity College.

A program of Maine Project Learning Tree, which uses forest studies to help students understand environmental issues, FIG is designed to give high school students hands-on experience collecting information over one-tenth acre of forest. Students do everything from calculating the volume of the wood to documenting the different soils, mosses and wildlife in the area.

The same area is monitored each year and the information serves as a reference point for future students.

"It's an ongoing outdoors lab," said Lois Ongley, assistant professor of chemistry at Unity College. "You can establish a culture in your school of studying a piece of land for generations."

That forest facts are not just kept in-house, however. The information is posted on a Web site managed by the Maine Forest Service. Using the Web site, students at Washington Academy in Machias can discover how their facts compare with what is found by students at Nokomis High School in Newport.

The process is similar to water quality studies students have undertaken across the state, Taylor said, but this is the first program of its kind that allows students to study the forest.

"When kids collect real-world data and actually get it published, that is a very special thing. It really piques their interest," Taylor said. "This is an opportunity to collect data and publish it and actually use it in a much more global fashion."

Thirty-seven middle and high school teachers in at least 30 schools in Maine have taken part in the FIG training over the past three years, said Pat Maloney, state coordinator for Project Learning Tree.

About 20 of those educators returned for the two-day session at Unity College to assess the program and make it more user friendly in hopes of pushing the program beyond Maine's borders. "What we're trying to do is refine our original program and take it to the national level," Maloney said. "I'm passionate about FIG because it gives teachers a real reason to get kids outside to do field work."

And even in Maine, which is primarily forest land, more students are spending time inside on computers or watching television and fewer are spending time in the woods, Maloney said.

"Anytime kids are outside and learning, it's always a wonderful experience for them," Taylor said.

The program is not limited to rural areas, said Kathy McGlauflin, senior vice president of education for Project Learning Tree. Students in an urban area could monitor a park or any other nearby wooded area.

"The idea is it works for all parts of the country," McGlauflin said.

The FIG program allows students to apply several disciplines, particularly math and science.

"You can even take an English class out there and have them write a poem," said Gerry Saunders, professor of education at Unity College, which teaches the FIG program as part of a methods class.

There are obstacles to overcome, including a standardized educational system that often forces teachers to cover a broad spectrum of material.

"The difficulty is the depth versus the breadth," Taylor said. "American science education has been accused of being a mile wide and an inch deep. FIG is the opposite of that philosophy."

Taylor believes, however, that the FIG program can be applied nationally. It is certainly worth trying, he said.

"How do we make it more user friendly and accessible to teachers?" he asked. "How do we make it doable? It's a tremendous opportunity."

Ultimately, the FIG program is designed to produce students who can think critically about the environment around them.

"It isn't teaching them to be environmentalists, but it's teaching them about how our world works so they can make informed decisions," McGlauflin said.