COEUR d'ALENE - The field trip Friday to Beauty Creek sums up nearly the entire school year's worth of work.

In teams, students in Jean Robinson's earth sciences classes at Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy collected and identified aquatic insects, measured the stream's nutrient load, and tested its dissolved oxygen and pH. Their analysis: The stream remains appropriately named.

"This is the 12th year I have taken kids to Beauty Creek," Robinson said. "It is their lab final in my class because they have to do this without Mrs. Robinson standing over them, telling them what to do."

Her goal is to teach students how to be stewards of the land and waters.

Eighth-grader Alex Paul said the students have learned, among other things, how bugs living in the stream can indicate the health of the water body. Bugs like stonefly larvae, which were plentiful, indicate a high-quality, minimally-polluted stream.

"Those are incredibly intolerant to pollutants," Paul said. "So it tells us that our Earth is safe now, and it's really clean."

Under the canopy cover of tall trees, students swished up rocks and pebbles with nets to capture insects.

They bounded through the stream, soaking shoes and socks, determining the creek's dimensions with measuring rods.

Other students loaded small glass vials with stream water, then placed the vials in instruments for testing. Other vials of water were mixed with chemicals and students measured the change in color.

Eighth-grader McKenna Sundahl was one of the team leaders, making sure everything was measured and recorded.

"There's a lot of oxygen in the water, and we found a lot of bugs," Sundahl said. "Also there's no phosphates or nitrates."

She said her peers realize the work is not just a class experience.

"It's real life," she said. And their work will be shared with state and federal agencies.

"This is real data that they're collecting," said Robinson. "Scientists will use it."

Students might think of this type of work as a potential career, she said.

She said nitrates and phosphates are showing up for the first time since she has been bringing students to Beauty Creek.

"(People) are impacting this area," she said.

She brought nearly 120 students to the creek Friday to work at different stations along the stream.

Eighth-grader Jericho Simone said the students take away the importance of protecting streams against pollution, the value of teamwork, and the benefits of hands-on work.

"I like being able to use all the materials to run the tests," she said. "This is probably the coolest final project I've ever done."

Classmate Annika Jacobson said the students learn better by doing, not just sitting around a classroom.

"I think our team did really well," Jacobson said.