The Old Rochester Regional High School environmental interactions class has been taking advantage of mother nature, tapping maple trees hoping to collect sap needed to make maple syrup.

“The students actually came up with the idea!” said Laura Champagne, the class’s teacher. On March 5, students traveled outside to tap a total of nine trees.

“I’m enjoying the maple tree experiment,” said senior Emily Beaulieu. “It’s very interesting and I’ve never done it before. The only downfall is having to go outside in almost all weather conditions.”

Not a week later, the class returned to the trees, hoping to find accumulated sap. None of the trees released sap, holding off results for another few classes to come.

“This project could take up to a month of collecting sap, or it could take a week,” said Champagne. “It all depends on weather conditions.”

In order for successful results, the temperature must be below freezing overnight and above freezing during the day.

The environmental interactions class will continue traveling outside, visiting their trees frequently, in high hopes of finding the sweet sap.