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Gwynn Park High School is getting back to its roots.

Three science teachers, with the help of Prince George's County agriculture groups, are pooling resources to restore the Brandywine school's 36-year-old greenhouse and reintroduce agriculture into the classroom. They plan to have the greenhouse fully operational by next spring.

"Many of our students have never been exposed to anything but concrete," said Paul Hollobaugh, a biology and environmental science teacher. He added that Gwynn Park — located in the heart of the county's rural tier — was once a hub for agricultural education.

The greenhouse, built in 1973, fell into disuse and disrepair in 2002, according to environmental science teacher Donald Belle. That year, a long-time science teacher who had maintained the greenhouse retired and a series of hurricane-force winds caused heavy damage, Belle said.

In 2007, Belle and other teachers and students began cleaning up the greenhouse, which was being used as storage space.

By that time, most of the electrical and other greenhouse infrastructure was not working, and an entire side of the greenhouse was overgrown, inside and out, with poison ivy, said Matt Mulder, director of the Accokeek Foundation's Center for Agriculture and Environmental Stewardship.

"It wasn't falling down, which is a big plus, but there was some definite work that needed to be done," said Mulder, who visited the site in 2007. He added that the foundation has advised Belle and the other teachers as they move ahead with the restoration.

Several other local groups have also stepped up to aid the project. The University of Maryland Extension has been helping Belle and the other teachers since they started the restoration, securing resources and counseling teachers as they reintroduce agriculture and horticulture into their lesson plans.

"I'd been driving by [the school] once a week and saw it had a standing greenhouse, but it looked like it needed a lot of work," said Brian Clark, an extension educator who has worked closely with Belle and the other teachers.

Clark estimated that between manpower and supplies, the total restoration would cost about $30,000. However, he said completion will depend on the school's ability to secure private grants in the future for approximately $15,000 worth of supplies and other repairs.

Maintenance crews from the Prince George's County school system have covered the bulk of repairs to electrical wiring, air cooling units and other greenhouse infrastructure, he added.

Early last year, the Prince George's Farm Bureau donated $1,000 to the restoration. President Yates Claggett said the group saw the greenhouse as an opportunity to get local students excited about agriculture again.

"These teenaged kids and younger are so out of touch with the farm these days, half of them don't know where their food comes from," he said.

Belle said about a half-dozen students have expressed interest in creating an ecology or agriculture club so far, but he anticipates a surge once they start growing more plants inside and on school grounds.

The school is also teaming up with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to grow sections of wetlands grasses inside the greenhouse. Students – including Grimes-Simons – will transport the wetlands to the Chesapeake Bay this spring to replenish deteriorating areas.

Except for a row of plant beds in the middle of the greenhouse that house the wetlands grasses, most of the beds are still empty. But Belle, Hollobaugh and a third environmental science teacher, James Robertson, say they are already including the greenhouse into their lesson plans. They plan to fill the beds with vegetables and other plants and start an organic garden on three acres of land on school grounds by this spring.

Gwynn Park senior Calliesha Grimes-Simons, 17, of Accokeek said she has visited the greenhouse several times this year with Robertson's science class to learn about greenhouse gases and other topics.

"I don't really understand things until I can actually experience it," she said. "Instead of just going to class...you can get the concept of the environment and how everything works."

E-mail Zoe Tillman at ztillman@gazette.net.