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Like most children, students at Creekside Elementary School wanted to know "Why?"

Why was their school named Creekside?

Why didn't the creek behind the school have a name?

Why does it have water sometimes and not other times?

First-grade teachers Gloria Sprague and Cathy Johnson turned those questions into a yearlong investigation in ecology.

The class measured the water depth each week and learned where the water came from and where it flowed. They also learned about pollution. Later, students will vote on a name for the creek.

"Our class is trying to keep people from putting trash in storm drains, so creeks can be more healthier," said Jenna Tomaszewski, 7.

She watched as classmates placed a sign on a drain in the neighborhood behind the school. Assisted by Teresa Barnes of the Butler County Storm Water District, students scoured the neighborhood gluing the signs to drains and placing information sheets by each front door.

"I love it when they offer to help," Barnes said.

The notes asked people to properly dispose of used oil and paint waste, to clean up after pets, to wash the car on the lawn or at a commercial car wash and to decrease the amount of pesticides and fertilizers used on the lawns.

"We need (the creek) to be healthy, and we don't need it to get any dirt or trash because it goes all the way to the ocean and we don't want anyone to kill the sharks and fish," said Kylee Bain, 6.

Tanner Pearson, 7, said the lessons learned in class will carry over to his own backyard, and the tools he and classmates invented to help collect trash safely will aid him so he doesn't have to get muddy or wet.

"I will go back to my creek and clean it up and I'll discover more places of it," he said.

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