DIXFIELD — Peeping chicks strut around a sturdy plastic container, while green lettuce grows from a container in the corner of the room.

This is “biology extension” class in Dirigo High School teacher Melanie Johnson’s biology lab.

“I want to get students to look outside the classroom,” Johnson said. “Biology is not just in the classroom. Kids should be more self-sufficient.”

“It’s a fun biology class,” exchange student Kristina Feige of Germany said.

Johnson’s other students felt pretty much the same.

Krystal Blood, a junior, often serves as Johnson’s lab assistant. She makes sure the chicks are cared for and adds nutrients to the hydroponic plants.

“I have chickens at home,” she said. “I think it’s great. You don’t see chicks hatch that often.”

Caitlyn Gallant, a junior biology student, thinks caring for chicks and growing lettuce is a lot more interesting than learning from a book.

“This gives life to what we learn,” she said, adding that her family once raised chickens.

Tymeka Cheadle, a sophomore student, particularly liked watching the unhatched eggs each day.

“We had to roll them everyday, then candle them to see how far along they were,” she said.

Seeing the lushness of lettuce growing from what appeared to be just water was another thing that surprised her.

“They grow so fast,” she said.

The classroom has two hydroponic plant systems growing. Both need nutrients to feed the greens. One is known as aeroponics where a nutrient-filled mist sprays from below the plants. The other one requires the plants to sit in a nutrient solution.

“It’s weird to see plants grow without dirt,” sophomore Keith Masse said.

The rest of that day’s class was filled with more traditional biology lessons – a large bullfrog, a starfish, an earthworm, and other dead creatures were about to be disected by those willing.

All the lettuce will be eaten by the students.

The chicks, a cross of a buff orpington and speckled Sussex, will be returned to the fertilized eggs’ owner.