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Poring over anatomy outlines and biology textbooks is how most students in Wheaton High School's bioscience academy learn their material. But a new area nonprofit that connects students' real world experiences with their school's curriculum has livened up the lessons, one Wheaton teacher says.

And one Wheaton High biology student even won an award for her contribution to the Washington, D.C.-based One World Education. The nonprofit publishes student essays about their experiences abroad and at home and lets teachers use them for free in the classroom.

Wheaton sophomore Melissa Linsao was honored Thursday at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., with U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-At Large) of the District and U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington for her essay describing how people in her home country of the Philippines live without hot water.

Her essay will serve as a learning tool for hundreds of other Washington,D.C.-area students when it's published on the nonprofit's Web site, said Eric Goldstein, the director of One World Education.

Goldstein, a former D.C. high school teacher, said he founded the nonprofit this year to create a national curriculum written by students for students. Any teacher can use the essays published on the site for free to bring a new dynamic to the classroom, he said.

"We're creating almost like a National Geographic for teenagers," he said.

Linsao was one of 100 or so students to submit an essay. Hers ranked third overall because it can easily engage students in classrooms across the country in a discussion on several topics, Goldstein said.

Linsao, who moved from the Philippines to the United States when she was 3 years old, wrote about how, on her return trips to the Philippines, her grandmother had to boil water before Linsao could use it to bathe.

Many of her American friends had trouble understanding how someone could live without the "essential" necessities of hot water, Linsao said.

"[Teens in the United States] have everything handed to them, but in other countries it's so much more difficult," she said.

The essays, which range from a student's perspective on an international conflict to a study-abroad experience to a local volunteer opportunity, are more than an eye-opening experience. At Wheaton High School, they've helped students connect chemicals and formulae with the human aspect of science, said Catherine Sobieszczyk, an Advanced Placement biology teacher at Wheaton.

For example, Sobieszczyk said she used a One World Education essay written by a student with cerebral palsy to help her students analyze the human and emotional effects of the disease.

"We do a lot of work with human body systems, so there's a lot of science and connection to disease, but it's very rare the students get an opportunity to meet people with those diseases," she said.

And an essay about a Zambian student who was orphaned, most likely due to AIDS, spawned a discussion of how much information is the right amount to tell children when discussing diseases, Sobieszczyk said.

Goldstein said he has plans to expand his nonprofit nationally, saying the essays enhance students' core curriculum with 21st-century schooling "of global awareness and meaningful citizenship."

Sobieszczyk said so far, One World Education's approach is working.

"Anytime they have the opportunity to make global connections on what they're learning, that can be pretty powerful," she said.