LAGUNA BEACH : Students Conducting Seeding Laboratory

The firestorm that struck the city in October may have brought destruction, but out of the ashes has come a one-of-a-kind learning experience for a group of sixth-grade science students at Thurston Middle School.

In a class project that teachers John Wilkerson and Carrie Leventhal hope they never have to repeat, a reseeding laboratory has been created on a charred hillside near a classroom wing that was destroyed by fire at the school.

With the cooperation of city officials, the parcel was left untouched in the recent seeding that has covered much of the other Laguna hillsides.

Now students are working on their own reseeding project on the hillside, developing their own hypotheses and conducting their own experiments about what will happen to the scorched ground surrounding the school.

School officials say the students will be able to observe the city and county reseeding in comparison with their own project. And everything they do will be compared to a control plot left untouched.

Wilkerson said he sees the project, which encompasses the subjects of geology, physics, chemistry and biology, as a long-term educational experience.

“I can see this study going on for months, perhaps years,” he said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me as well as my students.”

Students already have been surprised by the results as fresh shoots of green emerge from the blackened soil.

Said sixth-grader Sarah Stevens: “I can’t believe something has already started to grow. This is going to make science more fun.”