BATH — The Kennebec Estuary Land Trust (KELT) and students from Regional School Unit 1 celebrated the opening of a digital interpretive trail at Sewall Woods Preserve on June 14.

The trail is now available to the public.

Surrounded by patches of sunlight filtering through a canopy of red oak leaves, Kylie Grendell, a Fisher Mitchell School third-grader, shared facts from the Sewall Woods Digital Trail at the trail opening on June 14.

“Ferns grow in the shade and young white pine trees like to grow in the sunlight,” Grendell said.

Grendell was a student in teacher Joan Newkirk’s third grade class, which created the Sewall Woods Digital Trail.

Newkirk, a KELT member and volunteer, wanted to use the resources of the land trust to enrich the learning experience of her students, a KELT release states. She approached land trust staff last summer with the idea of creating an interpretive trail on one of KELT’s properties.

The new interpretive trail uses Quick Response (QR) codes, two-dimensional matrix bar codes, that when read using a smartphone or tablet QR code scan application will transfer the user to a website, www.sewallwoods. blogspot.com.

“Initially, it was difficult for the students to imagine what we were doing with the digital trail,” Newkirk said in the release. “On opening day, the students were excited to see the final product, which they will be able to access for years to come. In addition, next year’s third-graders will have this class’ work as an example, when they continue the QR codes further down the trail.”

Students from Bath Middle School also participated. Seventh grade students mentored younger students by joining trips to the preserve for field observations and in the classroom, adding the thirdgraders’ information to the digital trail’s blog.

Bath Middle School science teacher Monica Wright, coordinated the seventh grade mentors.

“(The third grade students) particularly enjoyed and benefited from working with Monica Wright and the seventh graders; collaboration is a powerful learning tool,” Newkirk said in the release.

The trail’s grand opening on June 14 drew members of the students’ families and friends, land trust staff and volunteers, teachers and RSU 1 administration staff. Visitors walked to the eight different interpretive signs to scan the QR codes with smart devices. Students were at each spot ready to answer questions and share research.

A Green Works Grant from Project Learning Tree (www.plt.org) funded the project.

Kyle Jongerden of RSU 1 provided technical assistance. Trey Milam, a summer intern at KELT, installed the QR posts.

For more information, visit www.kennebecestuary.org or call 442-8400.