(AP) — Finding themselves racing across the Ohio River in an open boat on a cool November morning, it was not your typical day in the classroom for 45 students from Evansville's Signature School. The students, in the school's environmental science class, were on their way to the Living Lands & Waters floating classroom barge moored about 10 minutes down stream from the Evansville riverfront. Living Lands & Waters, based in East Moline Illinois, was started 17 years ago by Chad Pregracke, a commercial fisherman and shell diver, who was distressed by the trash lining the banks of the islands he worked. The organization now includes programs in invasive species eradication, organizing volunteers to remove honeysuckle and kudzu, and creating a nursery to grow native trees in the MillionTrees Project for restoring river banks by adopting a river mile, and educational workshops for teachers and students. The Sig School presentation focused on trash, pollution sources and the effects of invasive species have on native plants and animals.