WHEREAS, Lankenau is Philadelphia’s Environmental Science Magnet School; and
WHEREAS, Students from Matthew VanKouwenberg and Cynthia Geesey’s classes, and the schools environmentalist club, around 150 students took to the Schuylkill River to study the bivalves; and
WHEREAS, Students study and work with eastern pond mussels and alewife floaters, two freshwater mussels native to the Philadelphia region; and
WHEREAS, Freshwater purification using mollusks has seen recent success in other Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern cities; and
WHEREAS, The program, in association with the Philadelphia Water Department, has provided Lankenau students with valuable out-of-school time and helped them bolster their problem-solving, research, and data-collection skills; and
WHEREAS, In addition to studying mussels’ water purification abilities, students are also investigating how the bivalves’ growth and reproduction are affected by rising river temperatures; and
WHEREAS, Teachers and club leadership are pursuing a published journal article based on the Lankenau students’ work; and
WHEREAS, One Water Department official called the students’ work “cutting edge,” as there is currently very little research on rising river temperatures’ impact on freshwater mollusks; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby congratulate and honor the Champions of the Week, the students of Lankenau High School, for their valuable work studying the environmental impact of mussels and working to increase the mussel population in the Schuylkill River.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an engrossed copy be presented to Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet School, further evidencing the sincere admiration and respect of this legislative body.
End