It isn't every day that a teacher sees history - or prehistory, for that matter - repeat itself.

Intrigued by the bestseller Jurassic Park, Barbara Schaer of the Middle Island Teachers Association read excerpts of the novel to her students. When the movie was released in 1993, she jumped at the opportunity to use students' love of these prehistoric creatures for learning.

What stands today, displayed at Longwood High in Suffolk County, is the Jurassic Park Project, a 4-by-8-foot model of a dinosaur park. Originally built by Schaer's fifth-graders in 1993, the park is home to six different types of dinosaurs.

Styrofoam boards, plastic trees, sand, twigs and clay were used to create the modules that fit together like a puzzle to form the park.

Schaer enlisted the help of Harry Farides, a train model expert, to show students the ropes of scale model building.

Schaer's current fifth-grade class repaired the main structure and reconstructed many dinosaurs.

"We used science and technology when it came to the actual construction of the park, and math for the measurements," Schaer said. Some students wrote dinosaur poems.

Schaer helped students focus their research by providing Internet links to information.

Schaer "motivates her students to work hard, but she makes learning so much fun they don't even notice it," said Barbara Governale, president of the Middle Island TA.

"This year's class has already expressed interest in coming back when they are seniors to restore the park, and some of the seniors have already expressed interest in pursuing teaching," said Schaer.

Both projects were made possible by the Mideast Suffolk Teachers Center Terri Peters mini-grant.

For more information on the project, e-mail bschaer@longwood.csc.com.

- Ozioma Egwuonwu