Like searching for a needle in a haystack, the hunt for elusive, wild and endangered animals in one of the most remote parts of Australia was never going to be easy.
The spiky pokipain (echidna) hadn't been spotted in the region in years.
And the rare, brightly coloured Gouldian finch, which declined dramatically during the 20th century due to habitat loss, is one of Australia's most hard-to-find birds.
It was a near-impossible undertaking from the outset, but the tiny school in the isolated community of Manyallaluk, more than 400 kilometres south of Darwin, had heard whispers they existed close by.
That the mission would be years in the making and would require drones, spy cameras, and environmental DNA tests, was something no-one could foresee.
Now, the school is in the running for a major national award.
"That first Gouldian finch and the first echidna we saw, there was a lot of celebration," school principal Ben Kleinig said.
"And because it had taken us quite a few years, it was an emotional experience … the effort that the kids put in over the years, it is quite commendable. Lots of time spent out in the heat, lots of dust, lots of sweat."
'Some of the best ideas sound crazy'
The expedition has its origins in the federal government's strong push for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects in the classroom around 2015.
The tiny cohort, consisting of just a principal and a teacher, at Manyallaluk School was at a loss.
"We didn't really know much about science. I didn't know much about technology. And like, where do you start with STEM?" Mr Kleinig said.
"One of the grade 6 kids at the time said, 'Can we please buy a drone for school?', which was a pretty out there, kind of crazy idea. But some of the best ideas sound crazy at the time.
"I was terrified of this drone, it sat in the box for a few months, and eventually we sort of dipped our toes in the water."
The first project involved mapping the seasonal effects of buffaloes from the sky.
And it went well.
From there sparks of curiosity had been lit; the students wanted to know what else was out there and they'd set their sights on some of Australia's most undetected wildlife.
Using spy cameras, the students got to work trying to figure out where the pokipain called home.
For more than two years, they would travel far and wide through the bush, climbing steep rocky escarpments to follow animal tracks, leaving tempting food close to the cameras in the hope they would catch a glimpse of the secretive monotreme.
When they finally found one, it was momentous. But they quickly moved on to tracking the Gouldian finch.
"We looked on a map and we thought, well, they should be here. How are we going to find them?" Mr Kleinig said.
"We'd put spy cameras out on natural waterholes with no luck. We even did some environmental DNA tests with Charles Darwin University with no luck. So it was quite a treasure hunt.
"Then we came up with the idea to make a little artificial watering station."
Manyallaluk School student Aralise Fredricks said she had now seen the tiny bird that attracted twitchers from across the globe in the "hundreds".
"We were so excited when we found some. Shocked," she said.
"We'd never seen one before and then we put out the spy cameras and [caught] them."
Firing students up for the future
Every day the students lurch into the back of a troopy to make the dusty trip to the watering station, blaring the horn loudly on the way to scare off any buffaloes.
As they tumble out they stamp their feet loudly on their way to fill up buckets with water from the nearby stream, to replenish the tiny pond.
Then they check which animals the cameras captured the night before.
The technology picked up everything from tiny native mice to donkeys, wild cats, snakes, and a plethora of wild birds, student Emmalishia Nelson said.
In a part of the country where remote schools battle constant low attendance rates, Mr Kleinig said the project had spurred on learning.
But there was an additional "hidden agenda" even closer to his heart.
"What's more important, from my point of view, more important than the facts, is getting kids inspired to write, as well as getting kids confident with trying new things and using technology," he said.
"When kids feel like they're experts on a particular topic that really fuels their imagination for writing.
"And also, by getting the kids hands-on experience with this sort of equipment, it gets them fired up for real jobs later on in life like science jobs, and ranger jobs.
"It just instills a can-do attitude that will serve them well later in life."
The students are now vying for the Woolworths Junior Landcare Team Award, which recognises teams that implement Landcare practices within their local community or school.
The winners will be announced this month.
