Investigation

During the fall of 2008, all 90 sixth graders participated in a day-long watershed training at Glen Maury Park in Buena Vista.  The watershed investigators learned how to determine the health of the river that goes through their town. They also learned about how pollution can get into the river and how this affects life downstream.

The students waded into the Maury River and caught macro-invertebrates(aquatic bugs) in their nets. The number and kinds of critters they found helped them determine how healthy the water was.	They learned to identify many of the macroinvertebrates.  Based on their findings, they found the river to be pretty healthy.  The chemical test they did also suggested the water was healthy.	The students also learned how to calculate how many gallons of rainwater run across a paved surface after a storm.  In Buena Vista, this run-off goes straight into the storm drains, which dump the water directly into the river.

Planning

After their training, the students made a plan to help keep the Maury River clean.  They decided to teach people about storm drains in Buena Vista.  Water that rushes into storm drains goes directly to the Maury River on its way to the Bay.  The students wanted to stencil the storm drains with a message that would tell people not to dump oil and pollutants in the drain.  First they had to find the drains and ask permission from the City Council.  

On a cold day in Feburary, a team of students located the storm drains near PMMS.	Students make a presentation to City Council, telling about their trip to the Bay and asking for permission to stencil storm drains.  The council votes YES!	After the meeting, the students with their teacher show off their stencil and some fliers they made about the project.

Action

With the approval from the City, the students got ready for stencilling.  First they practiced on the grass.  A few weeks later several small groups went out to complete the project.   They stencilled eight drains near the school.

On a beautiful day in March several teams of students took their supplies to their stencilling site.  First the students swept the site clean.  This road drains a lot of water from the mountains behind the school.	The students carefully positioned the stencil in front of the drain.  They used a cardboard box (and later a sheet) to protect the road from unwanted paint.  The paint worked best on smooth surfaces.  It dried in about 15 minutes and will last several years.	A reporter from the local paper came to take pictures and interview some of the students.  An big article about the PMMS students appeared in the newspaper.  The city was very proud of its young citizens!