Once the rains start and the creek begins to flow, other tests are added so that everyone in the class is working on a test and has a job. It is important that each student have a responsibility. When all the children are actively involved, you do not have to concern yourself with discipline, as the inquiry itself keeps them interested. The creek study takes a new direction every year. Each class has its own personality, and the children raise different questions, so each inquiry is different.
Students decide the direction of the year-long creek study themselves.
The first year, for instance, we monitored temperature, weather, plants, animals and change. The second year, students wrote poems and drew creek pictures with pastels. These poems and drawings were published in a Tam Valley School Creek Poetry Collection, and shared at a school board meeting. Questions about the pH level led to an investigation about pH and how it affects the plant and animal life of the creek. More questions came forward, along with the need to collect and discuss the evidence observed at the creek.