LEWISTON — Students at Stella Niagara have traded their pencils, scissors and notebooks for shovels, seeds and watering cans.

With a nod to the value of an outdoor learning experience, a grass field-turned-garden on the campus on the shores of the lower Niagara River will serve as a living, breathing classroom as part of the recently launched Stella G. R. O. W. S., or the Growing, Reaping, Outdoors With Students program.

The half-acre spot, which a century ago was part of acres of farmland used to grow food for religious sisters working across Western New York, later this year will be sprouting vegetables, flowers and other plants.

The students, with some help from their technology teacher, are also dabbling in hydroponics.

It’s all part of school officials’ focus on a new effort to use plants and other aspects of the natural environment as tools for learning.

“This really goes back to our roots, no pun intended,” said Kristen M. de- Guehery, director of institutional advancement at Stella Niagara.

The Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, who have run a school on the site since 1908, have a long-standing ethic of care and respect for the environment, de- Guehery said.

Stella G. R. O. W. S. was launched, fittingly, on Arbor Day, which in New York State was April 24.

The plot of tilled soil was divided into eight sections, with different groups and classes cultivating various plantings in their parts of the garden.

Seventh-graders have an herb garden with the theme “Scarborough Fair,” with plantings of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

A few classes have taken a “South of the Border” theme, growing ingredients to make salsa.

Sixth-and eighth-grade classes have planted natural dye plants and fragrant flowers under the theme, “Sachet or Dye.”

Sister Margaret Sullivan, the school principal, said that while the garden is the new part of the teaching process, the school isn’t leaving the chalkboard behind.

What students learn getting their hands dirty in the garden will relate to things they will be taught in other classes, like art, social studies and science, Sullivan said.

“There’s a lot of lessons buried underneath here,” she said.

Art teacher Patrick Liuzzi said the natural dye plants being grown, like red onions, marigolds and Lily of the Valley, will eventually be used in his

classroom to color plain white fabric.

Plans call for the colored fabric to be used this fall or next spring by an after-school quilting club, Liuzzi said. In social studies classes, students also will use the dye plants to learn about world cultures that use them, he said.

Upstairs and down the hall, technology teacher Mike Simpson’s classroom is showing early signs of becoming a hydroponic facility.

Utilizing artificial light to grow plants indoors gives students the capability of cultivating crops year-round, said Simpson.

Students from grades three through eight are starting to experiment with different growth media — not soil — and a variety of light levels as they try to sprout various peppers and tomatoes in the corner of their classroom.

The project includes learning aspects of chemistry in testing the pH in the clay-based growth media.

The students have shown an eagerness in the work, Simpson said.

“I’m pretty sure every student, by third grade, can spell photosynthesis,” he said.

Once the crops grow, the students plan to harvest the food and donate it to an area food pantry.

School officials said the hydroponics, along with the outdoor garden, which also has beans, pumpkins and sunflowers, is only the beginning as the school plans to maintain a “green” mentality.

“The teachers started planning for this last fall and talking about what was possible,” said deGuehery, “and they thought this was a good first step.”

Both the garden project and the hydroponic equipment will be helped by grant money from both Niagara University and the Foundation of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.