PHWS Projects Musselman High School- Inwood, WV

Musselman High School- Inwood, WV

April 2013

At the beginning of March, 4 members of the W.E.T Club (Watershed Environmental Team) visited nearby schools Mill Creek Intermediate School and Mountain Ridge Intermediate School to provide the 5 grade classes with an educational outreach. The high school students used Cacapon Institute’s Potomac Highlands Watershed School (eSchool) to educate the 5 graders about watersheds and non-point source pollution. The high school students provided a hands-on learning of non-point source pollution used an enviroscape. An enviroscape depicts how pollutants from urban and agricultural sources travel downhill over the land and end in water systems. By understanding sources of pollution and various forms students began to understand how every person has an impact river health. The 5^th grade students would be well prepared for the rain garden installations that would take place at the schools later in April.


Students from the W.E.T Club worked to design a living sign on a hill near the soccer field.	The sign was constructed with 50 blue rug junipers spelling “MHS”. The area was outlined with bricks and red mulch filled in the area.
	This living sign helps to decrease stormwater runoff from the soccer field while evoking school spirit for sports games. On March 28 construction of the sign began with Executive Director Frank Rodgers tilled the outlining for the junipers to be planted.
A group of 6 students worked to construct the sign using the plan they had created. Another group of W.E.T Club members planted 94 native plants in the pre-existing 3-tiered rain garden that was installed spring 2012. The students first worked to remove weeds that had grown in the garden. The rain garden maintenance allowed for more native plants to be added to the highly successful rain garden project.