Tahoma High seniors gave Rock Creek Elementary students a different kind of test on May 19 — an air pollution IQ test.

Nearly two dozen Tahoma High students gave a presentation to Rock Creek fourth graders on environmental sustainability as a part of an AP class.

For roughly an hour, the seniors talked to the grade schoolers about issues such as deforestation, endangered species, choral reefs and, mostly important, what the kids can do about it.

“We’re giving them ways to fix the problem,” said Hannah Fiskum.

As a part of her group’s presentation, they taught the kids about different fuels available, recycling and replanting, all of which prevent the loss of trees, which directly “impacts the community,” said Fiskum.

For the high school seniors, the presentation was a part of their American Politics and Global Issues class, which is required to graduate. The class is comprised fully of seniors.

“It deals with politics and what’s going on in our society and the current events,” Elina Crespo said.

Lexi Hausner stated that “it’s teaching us about what’s going on in the world outside of the U.S.”

After forming groups to work with, they spent two and a half weeks researching a particular topic. They then came up with creative ways of explaining the information to the fourth graders.

Some of the seniors brought posters or wrote on whiteboards.

Others tried to incorporate entertainment as a part of the education.

For example, Wesley Winstead and his group brought coloring pictures to help provide the kids with information. The pictures depicted superheroes performing energy saving tasks such as turning off unused lights, using a bike instead of a car and creating natural garbage as compost instead of filling up land fills.

One student even brought his laptop with a Jeopardy game specifically designed for their presentation.

The “ick” factor was another way to get the kid’s interested.

One group discussed water and what happens when it becomes polluted. They showed a re-usable bottle with water that was clean and transparent and then they showed a bottle of muddy water that had not gone through a filtering process.

“Do you want to drink that,” one of the seniors asked as they pointed at the dirty water. “Do you want to take a shower with this water?”

All of the kids shook their heads.

Several of the Tahoma High students were surprised at how quickly the kids got involved and already appeared informed about the environmental issues they brought up.

Tyler Caukins, whose group talked about the carbon cycle and green house emissions, said, “They all seem to enjoy it. They know their stuff. It’s fun. I had no idea it would be this fun.”

Although the presentations contained a lot of facts, such as the cost of bottled water and where it comes from, or what affects a vehicle’s gas mileage and carbon emission, the fourth graders had no problem remembering them.

When asked what new fact she had learned, fourth grader Gracie Johnson said, “You should do your oil changes and wash your car in the grass so the soap doesn’t get into the sewer,” an idea she said she plans on suggesting to her dad.

“People who drive cars in the sand-it’s not good,” she added.