A Model For Service-Learning

Odyssey School became the first Clean Creek Campus and set a benchmark for the program. There latest service project includes removing Ragweed, a non-native invasive plant, along Waller Creek and planting native plants to help restore the creek bed. Click here to check out a news 8 feature of  Odyssey marking stormdrains and caving. Click here to read a KXAN news  feature on Odyssey cleaning  Town Lake.

Bailey Middle School
Students at Bailey Middle School explored the importance of pervious cover, identified native plants, and then competed to create a garden design for their school garden. Then on March 19th they turned the soil, removed grass and weeds, added a border for their new star shaped garden, and then replenished the area with new soil and compost. Stay tuned as the garden continues to take shape.

Allan Elementary School
In its first year as a Clean Creek Campus Allan Elementary School has come over the top - 3rd graders have studied the dynamics of compost and are installing a compost bin, 4th graders are initiating a campus recycling campaign and 5th graders are focusing on litter and watersheds and plan to cleanup Boggy Creek. Click here to view pictures and accomplishments of the Garden workday at Allan.

South Boggy Creek Cleaners

Over 160 Williams Elementary School students trekked out to explore South Boggy Creek on November 14th. After completing a guided scavenger hunt students stepped up to clean trash out of the creek, collecting over a dozen bags of trash and two bags of recyclables. But the most interesting stuff was saved for last as students shared odd items found in a show and tell format.

A Mark of Success - Brooke Elementary School 

Fifth graders at Brooke Elementary School Creek marked stormdrains in their neighborhood.

Oak Hill Elementary Wild over Natives

Students cleared out over grown grasses and weeds, added topsoil to enrich the soil, planted natives they had selected, and mulched to conserve water and naturally prevent weeds.

Texas School for the Deaf Reaches Beyond their Borders

Bordered by West Bouldin Creek the fifth graders headed out with trash bags to collect as much litter as they could and they exited the creek hauling bags heaping full. 

The below poem best captures the monthly field trips to local creeks and the rewards of service-learning. The poem is written by Ron Blanton Odyssey School teacher in collaboration with students Matthew Lawyer and Connor Healy.

Creek Cleaner’s Bag O’ Rhymes
Creek Cleaner’s are coming to a park near you,
Picking up the trash some thoughtless person threw,
Learning about the Aquifer, water cycle too,
Helping the environment is what the Creek Cleaners do
Finding lots of pieces of dis-carded time,
Out of someone’s sight, out of someone’s mind
Helping Mother Earth makes us all feel good,
Hiking along the creek bank, climbing through the wood
It’s interesting in a gross sort of way,
To see the kind of junk that people throw away
Pieces of a car, bottles and cans,
Tons of plastic bags buried in the sand
Styrofoam cups floating in the creek,
Things that smell funky, things that really reek
Cigarette butts, boom boxes, someone’s underwear,
Hope they don’t need this stuff, hope they start to care
It’s dropped on the ground and over time it sinks,
Down to the watershed, the supply from which we drink
So if you have the chance, and even if it’s hard,
Do everything you can for creeks, get a Creek Cleaner Award!