Alva Review-Courier -

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) — John Cook looked at the items before him on the table: an empty plastic bottle, cotton balls, gravel and charcoal. Separately, they may not mean much to him.

But John, a sixth-grader at Whittier Elementary, learned recently that if you combine those items they make a water filtration system, and it could help him survive in the wilderness.

"I've never really done this before," John said to the Muskogee Phoenix. "If you didn't have what you needed, you'd be out of luck I guess. But we're learning basic survival skills, and I guess they would help if you got stuck somewher...