ARGYLE — As the Argyle Land Ethic Academy ends, the Argyle School District is trying to bring environmental studies and ethics into all its classrooms and is adding a special class on the subject at its high school.

The effort is a way to blend the Argyle Land Ethic Academy — an environmental charter school established within the high school in 2004 — into the regular curriculum. The academy is in its last school year but as part of the effort, a two-period Integrated Environmental Studies class will be added to the high school curriculum next year.

"We have identified Argyle as a school district that will thread environmental learning throughout the school experience," said Argyle Superintendent Bob Gilpatrick.

The district hopes the Integrated Environmental Studies class will attract students from surrounding districts through Wisconsin’s inter-district public school open enrollment program.

Bob Laeser, president of the volunteer board that governs the charter school, said the new direction will continue environmental education in the schools, which was the ultimate goal. Argyle is about 45 miles southwest of Madison.

Similar to the way the charter school has been run, students in the Integrated Environmental Studies class will visit regional sites of historical and environmental interest, do prairie plant seed collection and planting, invite guest speakers and conduct monthly water quality sampling. Students also use sophisticated water testing equipment, greenhouse and hydroponics units, canoes and bicycles, digital and video cameras and other media technology. Eleven students have signed up to take the class next year.

Currently, nine students are in the academy program, which is taught by Les Bieneman and is the last three periods of the school day.

In the Argyle Land Ethic Academy, students have studied the environment and related societal issues and learned how to apply that to ethical decisions.

By the end of the year, Bieneman said, the students in the academy will have taken between 60 and 70 field trips this year to places such as museums in Madison, Devil’s Lake State Park, the Perry Hauge Log Church near Blue Mounds and the Stewart Railroad Tunnel near Monticello — all in an effort to combine a sense of history with the environment in a way that follows the philosophy of Aldo Leopold.

"You can’t do those things and experience those things and not have them affect you," Bieneman said about the activities outside of the classroom.

"This is the class I’ve learned the most in," said senior Mack Stein, who took a summer school class that was a precursor to the academy program.

"It doesn’t feel like we’re in school," senior Chris Shambrook said.

 Each Monday the State Journal will feature a story about learning in southern Wisconsin. Send ideas for stories to Beth Williams at bwilliams@madison.com or call 608-252-6130.