enlarge Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Science teacher Christel Driscoll, left, works on the dome with eighth-grader Nicole Griffin last week. Driscoll and Thom Fournier began building the dome last spring with the help of students. Almost done, they will soon fill it with plants, science experiments and students.

enlarge Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Even Lewis, left, and Gabe Lindsay, both eighth-graders, work on the new geodesic dome last week at Lincoln Middle School. In an age of resource uncertainty, the dome will help teach middle schoolers about science and energy sustainability.

enlarge Photo by Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Thom Fournier, who teaches eighth-grade engineering technology at Portland’s Lincoln Middle School, talks about the living outdoor classroom teachers and students are building at the school. Due to be formally unveiled Oct. 18, the dome will be heated, cooled and powered entirely by the sun and will be maintained, in part, by algae-eating snails.

An unusual outdoor classroom is taking shape in the front yard of Portland's Lincoln Middle School.

But it's what will happen inside the geodesic dome that will be really unique.

"This is giving us opportunities to teach things we haven't taught in the past," said Thom Fournier, who teaches engineering technology at the school.

The dome will be a combined classroom and laboratory for lessons on everything from physics to renewable energy to composting. And, in an age of global warming and uncertainty about energy sources, learning about sustainability will be basic training for the middle schoolers, he said.

The dome will be heated, cooled and powered entirely by the sun. And it will be maintained, in part, by algae-eating snails.

Fournier and fellow science teacher Christel Driscoll started building the dome last spring with the help of students, and they kept working on it all summer. Now they're almost done and will soon fill the dome with plants, science experiments and students.

Fournier and Driscoll collected a total of $36,000 in grants and donated supplies. Most of that came from a $15,000 donation from a Portlander who didn't want to be named and a $10,000 national grant from Toyota TAPESTRY, a program that promotes science education.

"It's going to be a living classroom," said Elizabeth McGarvey, a student at nearby McAuley High School. McGarvey helped with the project before graduating from Lincoln last spring and is now volunteering to help to put the finishing touches on the structure for the students who will follow.

"The cool thing is they can really get involved and see how things work," McGarvey said. "I personally think we're going to run out of (conventional) energy sources. We all need to learn about renewables."

The space-age classroom sits outside the school's front door just off Stevens Avenue. It occupies space that used to be the home of old-fashioned rectangular modular classrooms.

The clear polycarbonate panels allow sunlight to heat up the floor and a water tank that will absorb heat during the day and release it at night. It will be the snails' job to keep the tank clean. Solar panels also will be used to help heat and provide electricity to the classroom for things such as laptop computers.

"We're not using any utilities from the school. We're not even hooked up," Fournier said.

The dome has vents and fans that will automatically cool the space if it gets too warm. It is designed to stay between 65 and 72 degrees year-round.

There also is an underground cistern that will collect rainwater running off the roof and circulate it though a drip irrigation system that will automatically water the plants and gardens.

"I think it's a remarkable setting" to teach about science and sustainability, said Andrew Herrschaft, father of a sixth-grader at the school and one of the community volunteers who have helped put the dome together.

Lincoln may be the only school in Maine to have its own version of "Biosphere 2," but it isn't the only school finding creative ways to use and teach about low-impact technology. Portland's new East End Community School has solar panels and a roof that's covered in plants. Plans for a new middle school in Westbrook include geothermal and solar heat.

"I think you're going to see so much of it going into the schools," Fournier said.

Gabe Lindsay and Evan Lewis, both eighth-graders at Lincoln, are looking forward to getting into the classroom so much they stayed after school on a recent afternoon to help fasten flashing around the exterior walls of the dome.

"We're going to learn more about global warming and ... renewable resources. We'll learn more hands-on," Lindsay said.

Fournier and Driscoll will use the dome to teach about physical sciences such as physics and engineering. But they and other teachers also will bring classes out to the dome to learn about earth science...