Exhibit With Flowing Stream Draws Crowds, Wins Awards at the Flower Show
Stroud Water Research Center collaborated with senior students in the horticulture program at Williamson College of the Trades on their 2018 Philadelphia Flower Show exhibit entitled “Would You Drink the Water?” The exhibit featured flowing streams and highlighted best management practices for improving water and habitat quality in small streams so they can provide clean fresh water for both humans and wildlife.
The display taught how mature streamside forests help keep pollutants out of streams while maximizing the biodiversity needed to process and eliminate any new or existing pollutants in the water. It also demonstrated why seedlings need to be planted along deforested stream channels for improving water quality and how the public can help.
Children were encouraged to look closely at the exhibit to find hidden sculptures representing wildlife you might find in and around a healthy stream.
Within the exhibit were fish, crayfish, blue herons, woodpeckers, turtles, frogs, squirrels, bees, snakes and butterflies. Each was noted as having contributed in some ways to the health of the stream. From Flower Show Exhibits Showcase Creativity and the Meaning of Water, Daily Local News
The “Would You Drink the Water?” exhibit won a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold Medal and the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association Trophy for showing the most effective use of plants and best use of design in the education category. It was also a hit with flower show attendees — at one point they were lined up 10 deep to see the exhibit!
Photos of “I Spy” station, frog and fish sculptures, boys viewing exhibit, and trophy and medallion courtesy of Williamson College of the Trades. See their Facebook page for many more photos of the exhibit.
Model My Watershed Featured in Sustainability Exhibit
Students from W.B. Saul High School offered a demonstration of the Model My Watershed web app as part of their exhibit entitled simply, “Sustainability.” Teacher Bert Johnson and his students are part of the Stroud Center’s National Science Foundation Teaching Environmental Sustainability – Model My Watershed grant project.
Saul’s exhibit won the American Horticultural Society Environmental Award, which recognizes an exhibit of horticultural excellence that best demonstrates the bond between horticulture and the environment. It also won the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) Sustainability Award and a PHS Silver Medal.
Stroud Center Science at the Water Summit
On Wednesday March 7, with support from the William Penn Foundation and assistance from habitheque, PHS presented the Water Summit to explore clean water solutions. Featured speakers included environmental leaders — from artists to astronauts to scientists — including John Jackson, Ph.D., Stroud Center entomologist and senior research scientist.
