BUCKFIELD — Buckets hang from 20 maple trees, steam rises from a sap house and sleds full of five-gallon pails are ready to be filled.

It looks like a small farm maple syrup operation, similar to many in Western Maine, but it’s not.

This operation is being done by students at Buckfield Junior-Senior High School under the leadership of science teacher Caleb McNaughton.

“The kids have really been enthused,” he said. “This has been a really good project.”

Over the past few months, students have gathered, cut and split the wood taken from school property to use to boil the sap. They have designed and helped build the sap house, built the sled for carrying buckets and developed menus for using the syrup.

McNaughton has incorporated lessons from his anatomy, biology, technology and other classes.

Sophomore Alexis Bennett is one of the nearly 100 students taking part in the operation.

“I never knew how it was made, all the work people must do. I commend all those people,” she said.

Student Dennis Wescott said he realizes that not every school gets to participate in this Maine tradition. His family has been making maple syrup for years.

“It’s unique and makes our school special,” he said.

McNaughton said the school is the only school in the state that built a sap house, boiled sap and taught academic subjects at the same time.

The sap house started in September with a $4,480 grant from the Perloft family in Ellsworth. McNaughton said the students wrote the grant application.

The 10- by 24-foot sap house is built on the opposite side of a greenhouse, also built by students and paid for with a grant. It is also near the school’s one-acre garden, another grant-funded project, and a cluster of small buildings that sometimes house pigs, rabbits and other farm animals.

Boiling down the sap had to wait until this week because weather conditions prevented the sap from running.

McNaughton said students likely will hold one more boiling session. The buds are starting to swell, he said, so the trees need the sap for growth.

“The students have gotten a great work ethic from this,” he said.

He expects the operation to produce about four gallons of syrup. Most of it will be used at the school cafeteria for glazed carrots and French toast. Some may be sold to pay for fancy syrup bottles. This year’s yield is in canning jars.

“It’s a rich tradition in this part of Maine to use the natural resources,” McNaughton said.

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