Stream Dreams

by Margot McMillen
photography by Jim Rathert

The sky's the limit for this Raymondville Stream Team

Raymondville is a small town snuggled in the Ozarks near the Current River. Vacationers travel miles to hike and canoe here, so it was natural that the local school take advantage of the Department of Conservation and Department of Natural Resources Stream Team program and form the Raymondville School "Knee-Deep in Science" Stream Team.

It all started when teacher Justin Mutrux looked back on his own school days and realized there were years that he didn't remember at all. As the school's eighth-grade teacher, Mutrux thought, "I didn't want them to grow up and say, 'I don't remember anything about eighth grade.'" So, he started looking for new projects to add to the standard curriculum of English, math, history and science. "If you have strong memories," he says, "I think you're learning more of what you study."

Grades five through eight visit the Current River and perform tests, such as measuring flow, analyzing chemical content and identifying animals. Older kids help the younger ones learn the skills. Besides practicing scientific method and using biology and chemistry in their work, the students write reports and learn about the river's history. They also use math skills when they take measurements, and even when they read topographical maps for places they will visit.

In 1989, the class began producing the Cherry Street Journal. They sell ads to finance production and mail copies to everyone in the local zip codes. The Journal carries articles about the classroom, school and the rural community. Writing and editing for the Journal sharpens the kids' English skills and sense of history, and running a business gives them a new way to work with math.

Then, with help from Department of Elementary and Secondary Education grants over several years, the Stream Team purchased video cameras and editing equipment. "We wanted a different way of looking at things," says Mutrux.

"If you have the money, you can think up bigger ideas."

September is Stream Team Awareness month. Teams around the state will be conducting litter pick-ups, storm drain stenciling and educational events.

Flashback to Last Fall

It is the day of the annual Knee-Deep bike ride, and 30 people, each with a helmet fastened snugly on his or her head, are pedaling up and down the hills of the blacktop road. The class has been preparing for weeks for the gruelling 18-mile ride by jogging, doing push-ups, perfecting their bike skills and learning bike law from Highway Patrol Officer Marty Elmore.

Somewhere near the front of the line, Mr. Mutrux encourages the class to move on. At the tail end of the parade, Mrs. Lane, the counselor, steadily makes her way up a hill. One of the kids pedals along next to her, chattering cheerfully, the front wheel of his bike wobbling with the effort of balancing at such a slow speed. On the slopes down, they almost catch up with the rest.

About halfway between school and the river, there is a general store and a chance for a water break. The kids buy candy bars, soda, ice cream. The Team's video cameras are passed from kid to kid to parent, and students conduct impromptu interviews, thoughtfully checking on Mrs. Lane. Parents driving the sag wagon offer a ride, but nobody takes them up on it. Jim Rathert, Conservationist photographer, shoots pictures of the gathering, then drives ahead in his truck to find the perfect place to set up and catch the riders coming over the hill.

An hour later, we are ascending the steepest, slowest hill of all, but there is a sense of almost-there that keeps the group going. Then, coming over the top, the wide-angle river valley opens before us. Farm fields, pasture and a skirt of woods with stark, white sycamores stand like guardians next to the river. We have arrived. The rest of the ride is a coast down to the valley and a quiet, flat ride to the river.

Arriving at the base, the work of biking has subdued everyone. The students gather wood for a fire, unpack their equipment and hang their Stream Team banner that goes everywhere with them. They roast hot dogs, munch apples and gulp down soda. The videographers move from group to group, recording and asking questions. One of them catches Jim Rathert for an interview.

Fifth through eighth graders take part in Knee-Deep In Science. By eighth grade, kids have mastered water testing skills.

Lunch finished, Mr. Mutrux calls for the study groups to divide into teams. Thanks to money from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, each group has a full Stream Team kit. Some take measurements of pH, nitrates and dissolved oxygen, and others record results.

At one point, several kids put on waders and get into the stream to churn up the water and any critters that might be living in it. The critters, caught in a wide net, are hauled out to other team members to be studied and identified. The critters indicate the health of the stream.

To see them more closely, the specimens are trapped in a Discovery Scope - a plastic box with magnifying lens on one side. The Discovery Scope is passed around. "Is this a stonefly or a mayfly?" one student asks. Another takes a look.

"Do you have two tails or three?" she asks while examining the creature, adding that a stonefly has two tails and a mayfly has three. "I want to be a marine biologist, so I want to study everything. Oh! There's a hellgrammite."

"I want to study art," says another student, drawing a picture of the hellgrammite.

"Hellgrammites live in riffles," says Kimberly Maxey. Hellgrammites also indicate that the stream is healthy.

"Mr. Mutrux is pretty much the best teacher," adds Jason Nickels. "He gets us out of the classroom. We learn stuff and have more fun at it."

In a deeper spot in the stream, a group nets a crawdad and everyone rushes to look. Crawdads are a good sign. Although this part of the Current River is popular with canoers, its remote location has protected it from much of the industrial and agricultural pollution that plagues other Missouri streams.

In a couple of hours, the measurements are taken and the equipment is re packed. Everyone is more-or-less wet and more-or-less dry as they put bikes on the sag wagon and climb into a school bus for the ride back.

Raymondville Stream Team has won three state Stream Team awards. There are about 1,000 teams in Missouri.

Fast forward to March, 1997

The school year is coming to a close and, for the Knee-Deep Stream Team, it has been a good year indeed. They have made six trips to the river and also visited the Sunklands to look at sink holes. Some of the members have presented a program in Columbia at the Environmental Protection Agency's "Healthy Watersheds, Healthy People" conference. Others went to Arkansas to talk about water quality at a fly-fishing convention. The entire class also went to Jefferson City.

Today, while some of the students work at their desks, others are in the computer lab designing the next Cherry Street Journal. The stories are finished, but the pages must be put together for the printer.

In the classroom, Wade Ceplina and Zack Mutrux are reviewing the video of the Knee-Deep bike ride. Amanda Hogan and Zack have put hours of editing into the project and feel like they almost have the 15-minute tape perfected. Zack lists the ways to cut from clip to clip: "Wipe, swirl, tumble, squeeze, fade . . ." With a few more key strokes, they can make titles.

They review the almost-finished video. Sure enough, there are the early days of preparation, and Officer Elmore. There's the beautiful sky, autumn woods, line of bikes, the stop at the General Store and interview with Mrs. Lane. There is a close-up of a burned hot dog, the Stream Team banner, chat with Jim Rathert, a classmate being splashed with cold water, the crawdad.

But there is a glitch in the tape, a double black out between two clips. Another painstaking review of the program helps them find it and make the correction. "Every time you look, you find something new," says Wade.

Graeme Stroker and Shane Thomas have spent 10 hours on their 15 minutes of tape about the Sunklands, and they think they will spend another three or four. "When you find a mistake, you've got to do it all over again," explains Shane.

In these roughly cut tapes, Mr. Mutrux sees progress. Some day, he dreams, the class will make videotapes that can be used by other schools wanting to start their own Stream Team. For now, he's satisfied that they have a lot to remember about eighth grade.

Margot McMillen is a freelance writer and frequently contributes to Outside In.

For information about Stream Team events, call the Stream Team Hotline at: 1-800/781-1989 (voice mail) or Andrea Muenks, Stream Team 1,000 program coordinator, at: 573/751-4115, ext. 595.