Like a magic box in a children's story, the trail of treasures seemed endless -- well in excess of the school locker's capacity.

"I didn't know I had so much," said Melissa Shaffer, 12, of Jefferson Hills, as she neatly laid the keepsakes on the floor. There were binders, textbooks, suspense paperbacks, a ruler, two empty wallets, a brush and hair clips, roughly 40 pens and pencils and crayons, a music book and rosin for a violin, Altoids, fruit drink, a Halloween skeleton, a Christmas candy cane and a box of Valentine's Day chocolates.

And, for friends willing to wait while she rummages for a specific item, there is even her kindergarten yearbook to peruse.

The clean sweep of lockers at the Pleasant Hills Middle School was part of a monthlong seventh-grade project, Collecting as an Artistic Practice, conducted by the school in partnership with the Andy Warhol Museum, which pupils will be visiting tomorrow and Friday.

The cross-disciplinary project to show pupils that they are collectors, and what their collections reveal about them and their world, involves the art and social studies classes.

For the latter, representatives of Soldiers & Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial showed pupils a time capsule containing World War II memorabilia.

Then, artist educators from the Warhol Museum discussed Warhol's collections of movie star photographs, newspaper clippings and time capsules. They explained that artists collect as a means to visualize, organize and reflect in a chaotic world, and that the process reveals personal and cultural patterns.

To experience that first-hand, pupils in art classes will seal collections of items in shoe boxes. For social studies, they will write about what the collections convey to future generations about their group, times and culture.

Melissa said her collection of pens, pencils and crayons revealed that she draws a lot.

Matt Veseleny, 12, of Pleasant Hills, whose locker contained pencils, envelopes, a hat, folders, a backpack, a school athletic jacket and a mystery book, said his collection reflected the importance of sports and reading in his life.

Kelsee O'Hare, 13, of West Elizabeth, who removed a photograph of friends, a gift stuffed animal, crumpled papers, a jacket, a purse and a backpack, said her locker was as much a place to store things as it was an extension of who she is.

"I'm kinda messy at home, too," she said.

Matt Becker, 12, of Jefferson Hills, said his two Goosebumps books, tucked among a Duke basketball jacket, a math textbook and a lunch box, were a sign that he liked to read.

Someone observing his and his classmates' collections a century from now could conclude that pupils are not poor, he said, and that they "like good products."