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The mobile lab, a 20-foot by 50-foot-long trailer, painted green with the words ‘‘Explore the Wondrous World of Agriculture” on the side, was parked behind the school all week. Pupils were given the chance to learn about agriculture through hands-on experiments taught by a professional instructor from the foundation.

High Bridge’s media specialist Michele Forney came up with the idea of having the mobile lab come to the school after attending a conference sponsored by the foundation in Westminster last June that focused on ways to teach students about agriculture.

‘‘I thought it sounded interesting, and since our students are going to be taking a practice science MSA [Maryland State Aptitude test] in April, I thought the mobile lab might help prepare them,” Forney said.

‘‘I wrote a proposal explaining how the program works and its benefits to the kids last September, and two months later, they contacted me to say the would give me a $1,000 grant. The state paid the additional $200.”

The students examined and matched seeds to the foods they eat and connected crops and animals to the products they produce.

‘‘We usually read books about forests and animals and watch videos for science class,” High Bridge fifth-grader Francisco Bonilla said.

‘‘It was a lot of fun to do something different this week,” fifth-grader Mercedes Massey said.

‘‘A lot of the kids think that pizza only comes from the store,” mobile-lab instructor Wayne Buckingham said.

Buckingham said he teaches the pupils that everything that makes up a pizza comes from a farm, from the tomatoes used to make the sauce to the grain that becomes the crust.

The students then make ‘‘Pizza Charms,” which Buckingham describes as a pizza with a twist.

‘‘Instead of pepperoni, the children glue on little pig-shaped charms,” he said. ‘‘The kids use grain seeds to make the crust and little red felt balls that look like tomatoes to represent the sauce. It’s pretty neat.”

Buckingham, a retired Fredrick County teacher, has been a mobile lab instructor for seven years.

‘‘I heard about the program through another teacher that was retiring,” Buckingham said. ‘‘I got interested in becoming an instructor because I would still be able to teach and work with kids, but without all the paperwork and long hours.”

Mobile lab instructors teach about 15 weeks out of the school year. ‘‘The kids make my job a lot of fun,” Buckingham said. ‘‘I love to teach them through hands-on activities because they have fun but they’re still learning.”

Fifth-grader Malik Thomas, who made glue from milk on Tuesday, said his class was going to conduct an experiment to see if the milk-made glue was stronger than Elmer’s brand glue.

‘‘We’re going to take strips of paper and glue them together with the two different glues, then let it sit overnight,” Thomas said. ‘‘Then, the next day, we’re going to try and pull them apart to see which is easier to pull apart.”

Buckingham said that 70 percent of the time he’s found that the milk-made glue is stronger than the commercial brand.

‘‘I thought the mobile lab was a great experience,” High Bridge teacher Channie Baker said. ‘‘We have a lab here at the school, but don’t always have the time to do experiments and hands-on work.”

Baker said that her pupils ‘‘really seemed to enjoy” their time in the lab.

Requirements for a mobile lab include: a level site that is easily accessible to students; a minimal space of 20 feet by 50 feet; a 220 volt, 50 amp, ‘‘RV-Type” electrical hookup within 75 feet of the mobile lab; a water hookup; and a registration fee of $1,200.

For more information, contact Diana Tyler at 410-939-9030 or visit the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation’s Web site at www.maefonline.com.

E-mail Wendy McConnell at wmcconnell@gazette.net.