GASTON COUNTY, N.C. -- Some students in Gaston County are getting a hands-on look at our water cycle.

Pam Stroupe, certified environmental educator for the state of North Carolina, goes around to schools to teach students about water quality and the water cycle.

Stroupe tries to drive home the point that storm drains are for rain water only and are not sewers.

Through poems and songs, Stroupe teaches the students that everything you pour or throw in the ground affects our drinking water. She demonstrates this by taking a clean jar of water and starting to mix it with other colors, which represent oil, dirt, trash and pet waste.

These are pollutants some people dump down the storm drain.

Education is a big push for storm water departments. This is mostly funded by the monthly storm water fee residents pay every month.