SANDY LAKE, Mercer County - Fifth graders at Emily Brittain Elementary School wanted to learn more about nature and the world around them.

So they put their heads together and raised nearly $5,000 to help pay for a three-day trip last week to the McKeever Environmental Learning Center.

Susan Roycroft, a fifth grade teacher at Emily Brittain who helped organize the trip, said she was impressed with the students' determination to raise the money for the trip.

It was the first time students from the school have gone to the center, she said.

Each child was to bring in $35 to pay for half the cost of the trip per student, Roycroft said. Then several fund-raising events were held to earn the other $35 per student needed to make the trip.

The students had two bake sales, a cookie-dough sale and a T-shirt sale.

"Some kids even brought in extra money beyond the $35 if they could, which was great," Roycroft said.

Some children were unable to bring in the required $35 toward the trip, so they were able to work in the school cafeteria to help earn the money, Roycroft said.

"These kids were just very determined to make the trip, which I think is great," she said.

A total of 55 fifth graders went on the trip. Some did not go because they did not want to spend the night at the center.

Students who went arrived at McKeever on Wednesday and returned to Butler Friday afternoon, in time to board buses home.

While at McKeever, Roycroft said the students used a training manual and a journal to help guide their lessons at the center.

They also had a special presentation on birds of prey, in which several such birds, including owls and hawks, were brought by a handler to be shown to the students.