The grant is part of the 2009-11 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Enhancing Education Through Technology 21st Century Classrooms project.

Teachers envision using the river to gather information that will be catalogued and discussed on blogs, in class and in Webinars with fellow students or environmental officials.

"We're only limited by our imaginations," said Joanne Nyquist, a Title I teacher and computer lab instructor at Walter J. Meyer School who, with district business manager Lisa Reames, was part of a team that developed the 93-page application for the grant. She said early ideas on how to use the technology range from conducting Internet-based research to taking "virtual field trips" with the help of Webcams and videoconferencing.

The Tombstone district was one of 11 across the state that received the federal funding, according to Brett Hinton, director of educational technology with the Arizona Department of Education. See the list of other district winners here.

Grant funds may be available by this summer so the district can begin its purchase of equipment, including more than 400 laptops. This month, teachers will begin attending professional development workshops to train themselves on the technology.

In their grant proposal, teachers and administrators called the lack of technology available to TUSD students "shocking." For the majority of students, the 30-60 minutes of weekly computer lab time they get in school is their only exposure to the Internet or other computer applications.

"The fact is," said the TUSD grant writers, "we are still in the 20th century as opposed to 21st century."

The primary goal of the project will be to improve math scores on standardized tests such as AIMS and Terra Nova by 5 percent. In spring 2009, 44 percent of third-graders tested as "approaching" or "falling far below" the math standard of "number operations." By sixth grade, 32 percent still had not met the state standard. And by 10th grade, 60 percent of Tombstone students did not pass the math portion of AIMS.

Teachers will decide by grade level how their students will use the river as a teaching tool. Children from kindergarten to third grade may sort and weigh rocks, said Nyquist, to hone number sense and operation skills.

Fourth- to sixth-graders will measure water flow at specific points along the river throughout the year, which will involve adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing whole numbers. High school students will compare and contrast data gathered for a capstone project on water conservation, then reflect on their conclusions in a student-created blog.

It's not clear yet how often students will make the approximately 13-mile trek to the San Pedro, said Nyquist. But teachers are looking forward to the chance to integrate a natural resource with some high-tech learning to benefit Tombstone's students.

"I would say teachers are cautiously excited," said Nyquist. "It might be a little scary around the edges, but we can do so much."