PARIS — Eighth-graders at Oxford Hills Middle School learned the basics of how to use a checking account during a two-day workshop presented by Oxford Federal Credit Union.

Susan Graves, vice president of branch administration, and volunteers from the credit union taught 285 students with hands-on activities, a workbook and PowerPoint.

“OFCU is committed to inspiring and enabling financial responsibility starting at an early age,” said Cindy Giroux, vice president of human resources and marketing for the credit union. “We feel it’s important in this age of technology to instill good, basic financial habits that can serve as a foundation upon which to build a better financial future.”

It’s the third year of the partnership with the school to provide financial literacy education to students. The students were taught how to write checks, endorse checks, fill out deposit slips, balance checkbooks and use a debit card.

As a follow-up to the classroom lessons, the credit union arranged a visit to Harvest Hill Farm on Route 26 in Mechanic Falls so students could apply their new financial skills in the Big Corn Maze Adventure. In the labyrinth of passages they stopped at “checkbook stations” manned by a middle school teacher. Students were required to write a check, make an entry in their checkbook register or perform some other task they learned in class, in order to proceed through the maze. The credit union supplied each student with a checkbook and register, calculator and pencil, and a backpack to carry their supplies.

OFCU simultaneously conducted three other events at Harvest Hill Farms that reinforced the students’ new financial literacy skills. The events included a history of Harvest Hill Farms and a visit to the Petting Farm, where students learned the cost of owning a pet and wrote checks to pay for the upkeep of their own pretend pets.