BUCKLAND - Local students are making plans to step out of the classroom and into the rain forest of Costa Rica.
On Friday eight Mohawk Trail Regional High School students in UNYTE ecology program - Understanding Nature and Yourself Through Experience - will travel to the area where they hope to eventually purchase a piece of the rain forest and preserve it as a permanent outdoor classroom.
The Global Classroom Project, as it is called, would add to several reserves already protected, and consists of a 91.2 acre parcel of mixed farmland, cloud and rain forest on the Continental Divide between the Monteverde Biological and Santa Elena Reserves and next to the Children's Eternal Forest.
That 23,000-acre tract of rain forest was bought by schoolchildren from Costa Rica, Europe, Japan and the U.S. after a campaign organized by Swedish fourth-graders.
For Mohawk students - some of whom have never left the area, nevermind the country - the experience of visiting the rain forest and being a part of such a diminishing natural resource and different culture has had great impact.
"Everyone who has gone on this trip says it has changed their lives," says Mohawk Principal Phillip Dzialo.
This is the fourth trip to Costa Rica for Mohawk students, led by organizer Colin Garland, Program Coordinator for Earthlands Institute in Petersham and founder of outdoor adventure company, Raven Adventures and his assistant Nicole Lassiter.
Garland, a graduate of Greenfield Community College's Outdoor Leadership Program, has also worked with a Himalayan mountaineering school and the Outward Bound Program.  He recently completed the design and teacher training of the ropes course at Mohawk.
The 10-day itinerary shows the trip will prove both an adventure in knowing oneself as well as the natural wonders of the diverse ecosystems and indigenous population of Costa Rica.
Bus rides that depend on road conditions and weather, rustic camping conditions, different food and lots of hiking lie ahead for the intrepid voyagers.
"The last time we ended up hiking through mountains at midnight with a zillion stars and howling monkeys," says Garland.  "A lot of the kids had never experienced anything like that before.  They were amazed."
Weather and temperature fluctuations alone will be new and different experiences for most of the young explorers.
While April isn't technically the rainy season, it's close to it, and like island weather, rain typically comes in the late afternoon or evening.
In the Cloud Forest, with 100 percent saturation, Garland says that although it doesn't actually rain as much it's "constantly dripping everywhere."
During their time spent on the Santa Elena Reserve, students will camp out in a bare-bones shelter or under the stars, working on individual projects, visiting the future Global Classroom site and learning how to discover things in the jungle.
The group will also take what Garland calls "a nice long hike" - about 26 miles through pasture and wilderness and ending at the base of the active volcano Arenal.
"You're in this incredible production unit of oxygen, breathing right from the trees," he says.  "The hardest part of this hike won't be the 26 miles, but walking on the two-mile road afterward.
"If it's a clear night, you get to see the volcano erupting right from your bed," he says.
In the next days students will work with local agricultural/techinical school students, and visit La Fortuna Falls.
And when the group is finally homeward bound, Garland says there's on topic of conversation.
"The topic on the plane is food," says Garland, laughing. "One time when I asked them where they wanted to go for the final banquet, they said Pizza Hut.  So I said, Ohhkaay.  They bought four large pizzas, and I don't think they finished one.  The ingredients just aren't the same.  They use goat cheese and funny tomatoes.  I think they learned a lesson about eating food in a different country."
Overall Garland says that the trip is not so physically difficult as it may seem.
"But sometimes it's mentally tough," he says.  "Everyone will meet one of their demons."
For more information on how to get schools involved in owning a piece of the rain forest, or to make a contribution to the Global Classroom project, call Garland at 1 (978) 724-3530.