Lingelbach Elementary School Honored for Watershed Work

The Lingelbach Elementary School’s watershed project was recently selected as the 2009 award winner for the Schuylkill Action Network’s (SAN) Educational Award. Over this past school year, students from Lingelbach were learning about their watershed and taking steps to improve it. Lingelbach Elementary School is located in the Wissahickon Watershed, along the Monoshone Creek, in urban Philadelphia. The goal of their project was to apply the information that they learn to develop and implement practical solutions to improve the water quality of their watershed.

The project started with students completing an inventory of their community’s impact on the watershed, as well as learning activities to help students understand watershed pollution and water quality issues. The students took a class trip to the Fairmount Water Works Interpretative Center followed by a walking tour to the Wissahickon and Monoshone Creeks. During these trips, the students worked with the Senior Environmental Corps to test the quality of the water and compare it to various points in the watershed. The students learned from local watershed experts about the different water quality issues suggested by the test results. The next step of the process was to use this new information to decide a course of action for solving some of the issues.

The students, inspired by their watershed experiences, began the process of brainstorming about potential watershed projects. They focused on ways to improve water quality in their local community. This process led to the students developing three water-quality improvement projects.

The first project was a neighborhood storm drain labeling program to promote awareness in their community about dumping toxic and dangerous substances into the drains. In addition to simply labeling the storm drains, the students also conducted a publicity campaign to educate community members on the connection between storm drains and the watershed. One way that the students educated the public was through the development of a Public Service Announcement.

Finally, the students, in order to have a direct impact on stormwater pollution, also installed a rain garden on their school property to collect runoff and allow it to infiltrate before it leaves the school grounds. The students worked with local partners to select a location for the garden and designed it using native vegetation. The garden is situated in a visible location to promote stormwater Best Management Practices. This site is also one-hundred yards, up hill, from the Monoshone Creek, a tributary of the Wissahickon Creek. It provides additional filtration and improves the quality of the creek’s water.
In total, these student-driven projects is helping the school and local community members understand how their behavior impacts their water supply. Furthermore, through the awareness developed from the storm drain labeling and the PSA/publicity campaign and the additional infiltration provided by the rain garden, the quality of the water in the Monoshone Creek is being improved.