The freshwater mussel is"that Philadelphia species - that does so many so many different ecosystem services for us, but it doesn’t get the notoriety,” a water department scientist said.
The Philadelphia Water Department had tried partnering with schools to try to grow mussels, but the initial experiments failed. Officials wanted to give it another go in the 2022-23 school year, and chose an area private school to carry out the experiment.
Work began on the project in October. Between VanKouwenberg and Geesey’s classes and an environmental club, about 150 students are involved at the school, which is set on a wooded piece of landWhen VanKouwenberg first told students about the project, they were skeptical, and knew little about the animals, he said.But as the project has progressed, students have become more confident working with eastern pond mussels and alewife floaters, two freshwater mussels native to the area.
“I feel like these are skills that they can take with them for their whole lives,” said VanKouwenberg. “Not everyone is going to need to know the atomic mass of carbon for their lives, but everyone is going to need to know, ‘I’ve encountered a problem, I’m not sure what the answer is, but I have faith in myself that I have the skills to figure it out.’”
The students’ hopes are high, as are VanKouwenberg’s. Once the project has concluded and the mussels are released into the Schuylkill or possibly the Wissahickon, VanKouwenberg wants“There’s nothing out there about how temperature is affecting the growth of freshwater mussels,” VanKouwenberg said.
Wow - very cool.
Once again proving that the brain is the most important mussel
Mussel Tov
Love to see it!
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