The advertisement for Sarah Karmann's Edison Day invention -- a knife-fork-spoon camping utensil -- was decorated with delicate lacy nibbles along the edge of the poster board.

"Mr. Squirts did that," said Sarah, 14, talking about a large gray rabbit that roams around the classroom in the Renaissance Alternative School.

A live mascot is one of the perks, and hazards, of middle school life at the alternative school where students like Sarah and her classmates get individual attention and lessons tailored to their learning styles.

Creating a camping utensil was part of last week's Edison Day at the school -- an example of the way teacher Helen Vontom integrates science, history, language and art into high-interest projects for her students.

"This engages the kids; they come here and need something that's different," Vontom said. "This is not read the chapter, answer the questions; that doesn't match their learning style. It doesn't motivate them. They do a lot more hands-on things than working out of a textbook."

For Edison Day, her students followed all the steps real inventors must travel in their pursuit of patents. The students created models of their inventions, produced advertising posters and presented their inventor's logs.

"We learned the whole process about patents," Sarah said. "We had to have our log books, a diary of our invention."

Each log book included witnessed and dated entries of the student's drawings and research. They had to call local businesses to find out if their invention already existed and if it might find a place on store shelves.

"Log books, I never knew they had them," said Travis Hauck, 13, who invented a self-propelled mouse for his cat to play with. "I learned how to do some good research on the computer."

Like many inventors before him, Travis ran into some snags with his telephone research.

"One lady said, 'I don't have time for this, good-bye,'" Travis said. "Sharon (a teacher's aide) called her back to see if I could ask her some questions. She did, but she was really snotty."

David Sanchez, 14, had a more positive research experience than Travis.

"Tom Hunt at Grundy's (a hardware store) said my snow shovel would sell for about $35 to $45," said David. "I asked him, 'Have you ever seen this? Do you think it would sell? How much do you think it would cost?' Tom said, 'Yeah, keep on trying.' and 'I think the idea would really sell,' -- encouraging stuff like that."

Hunt was a good guesser because David's heavy-duty, ice-breaker snow shovel won the Edison Day prize for top invention.

The students' work was judged by Livingston Education Association Superintendent Sally Vaughn, Renaissance Principal Lee Porter and Renaissance secretary Judi Yacobelli.

When the alternative school opened six years ago, four county districts agreed to pay for students to attend the school. Last year, the high school was funded for 85 students and the middle school had 35 seats. Middle school registration topped out at 26 students last year.

Pinckney Community Schools decided to terminate its middle-school participation this year, although it continues to participate at the high school level. Fowlerville also opted out of the middle school program.

That left only the Howell Public Schools and Brighton Area Schools participating in the middle school program and one student from Fowlerville admitted on a daily-rate basis.

Each home district pays Renaissance's fiscal agent, the Livingston Educational Service Agency, $6,700 per student (the foundation grant amount set by the state) plus an additional $1,100 for every student enrolled at Renaissance.

With the loss of the Pinckney and Fowlerville income, the middle-school program was reduced to one classroom in September.

Although demand is down in the middle school, there is a waiting list for the high school. Vaughn said the administration is exploring all the options for next year.

Additional flexibility might be needed if the state's proposed 3.6-percent reduction in each student's foundation grant takes effect in February. Any reduction in the foundation grant would mean a corresponding reduction in fees for Renaissance students, who are extraordinarily devoted to their school.

"I love this school," said Gabrielle Thompson, 12. "Our teacher is able to help everybody."