The project - which was funded through a jog-a-thon sponsored by the California Junior Scholarship Federation last spring - took a day to complete.

The idea was brought to fruition through the school's Going Green elective under the direction of Hazel Whittaker, Valley Prep's middle school science teacher.

Whittaker's class takes on a variety of green initiative projects throughout the year, she said, adding that other year-round projects include schoolwide clean-up efforts and the upkeep of recycling bins on campus.

"The students decide what they want to do and I run with their ideas," Whittaker said. "It had been our desire for many years to put a pond of some description on campus and a legal pond to have on school grounds is a pondless waterfall."

In order to avoid the pond, they attach a filter at the bottom of the falls, which continuously recycles water to the top, without leaving a large puddle behind.

With help from Valley Prep students, employees of The Pond Digger of Yucaipa volunteered their time to install the waterfall on campus at no charge.

The effort cost the school $2,500 to complete, with Valley Prep covering all costs for materials through the fundraising effort, she said.

Not only will the pond be a decorative piece for the campus, it will also serve as a learning tool for the school's 161 students, Whittaker said.

"In seventh-grade life science, the children study pond organisms, and I've always been on the hunt for pond scum, which we will have as part of the little off-shoots of the waterfall," she said.

A wetland area is also being added to the waterfall, which will benefit the school's second-grade class, she said.

"We have art and language classes where each teacher themselves will be creative in their ways to use the pond," Whittaker added.

The Pond Digger installs 15 to 20 pondless waterfalls year-round at different sites throughout the Inland Empire, said the group's crew chief Scott Sherburne.

"Anything that we can do to keep kids interested in school and show them different aspects of things is always great," he said. "And as a company, it is always good to get young people involved in what we do. We are a very community-oriented company."