Thomas Hunter Middle School science teacher Jerry Ligon wants his seventh grade students to really get the science he’s dishing out daily in the classroom. He knows the value of hands-on experience, and he works tirelessly to offer his kids something they can see and feel and, perhaps, taste.

With that in mind, he set out a year or so ago to create an outdoor classroom right on the school grounds, and now he’s pretty close to having the first leg of a nature trail completed. Local Boy Scouts recently cleared about a quarter mile of trail through the woods surrounding the school, and this week, with the help and expertise of a crew from the U.S. Coast Guard Station at Milford Haven and several local volunteers, Ligon was able to build a bridge over a large outfall ditch near the beginning of the trail.

Ligon plans to leave the environment along the trail as natural as possible to highlight what nature has to offer locally—wild blackberries; sycamore, maple, and oak t...