"I think it's a cool way of learning," said 11-year-old Ethan Milford, a fifth-grader from Commodore Perry School District. He was talking about the way area students had to learn about the environment at a workshop Tuesday sponsored by Thiel College in Greenville.

"It's important to learn about it now, because when you are older, you may be able to become a scientist or someone who helps the land or endangered species," said Brittany Hess, a fourth-grader from East Elementary School, Greenville.

And that is exactly what Dr. Joyce Cuff, the Paul M. Rike professor of life science at Thiel College, has in mind.

The student workshops were part of the college's Earth Week events and involved almost 400 students from six area school districts -- St. Michael's Elementary School in Greenville, Notre Dame School in Hermitage, St. Joseph's School in Sharon and Jamestown, in addition to East Elementary and Commodore Perry. The theme was "Befriending the Earth."

"We feel strongly that we need to expose students to science in the middle school. We think that's the best group for engaging them in these kinds of activities," said Dr. Cuff, noting that this was the fourth year for the workshops. "It helps to teach them to take care of the earth and the importance of the world around them. It helps them to become both engaged in science and responsible to their environment."

Some of the activities included a portable planetarium and Earthballoon, which were provided by the Carnegie Science Institute in Pittsburgh, as well as college student-led workshops. Dr. Cuff said that 50 biology students and 20 elementary education students helped coordinate Tuesday's event.

"It shows the kids this isn't something that just the professors want to do, that this isn't something that just the adults want to do. It's something that the students want to do and maybe it should be important to them," said biology major Josh Lister, referring to the importance of college students working with the middle school-age students.

Dr. Cuff agreed, and thought it was good for the college students as well.

"It's good for them to be used to talking to a variety of audiences. They don't often have a chance to talk to the younger generation," she said. "It gives them an idea of where they (the younger students) are."

During one student-led workshop, students used different utensils, such as a spoon or tweezers, to pick out natural resources represented by items such as beans and bingo chips from a pile of shredded paper representing the soil of the earth.

The kids were pretty unanimous about enjoying a new way of learning.

"I like learning like this cuz it's fun while you're learning," said Hallie Hudson, 12, and a sixth-grader at St. Joseph's School.

"Yeah," said Jeff Kepner, 10, of East Elementary School. "I like doing this because we're doing stuff I like to do."

Having fun is part of what Dr. Cuff wants the students to have, "but I hope they have a little bit of a sense of the fact that the world supports more than humans -- that we have to be careful about what we do," said the assistant academic dean.

And the kids got the message loud and clear.

"I think that if we learn about the earth now, in the future we can help change it because as we get older, more people listen to us," said 11-year-old Krystal Cline of Commodore Perry.

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