13th Annual Chicago River Student Congress
Thank you…
…to all for making the 13th annual Chicago River Student Congress, “Cleaner Water for All!” a great success.
A grand total of 485 people, including 393 students from 36 schools, 41 teachers, 9 environmental organizations, and other guests enjoyed a morning of workshops, displays, artwork and music celebrating the Chicago River watershed. We were especially pleased to have Chicago Alderman Gene Schulter and MWRD Commissioner Mariyana Spyropoulos both in attendance.
The opening ceremony featured a skit about water quality from the students of Maine East High School in Park Ridge. The students were led by science teacher Shelby Childress. The skit demonstrated concepts such as biomagnification of pollutants, a river food chain, and how people, plants and animals can be adversely affected by lower water quality.
Ms. Nina Hike-Teague, a science teacher from Curie Metro High School happily accepted Friends’ “Educator of the Year” award.
Ms. Pat Parsons was our keynote speaker. Her talk talked of greater service to improve the water quality of the Chicago River. She praised the students for the good work that’s been accomplished and charged them with learning from others to continue the fight for habitat improvement.
All in attendance were in awe of the closing program when Big Run Wolf Ranch brought out a groundhog, a lynx, a coyote, and a timber wolf. The presentation covered their natural history and their importance within the ecosystem.
If you were at the 2010 Student Congress and would like to comment on the event, please click here to take the online survey. Your feedback is appreciated.
Photos from the 2010 Student Congress
Click to enlarge image
Thanks again to all who made this wonderful event possible, especially the staff and faculty of Amundsen High School and the Geographic Society of Chicago.
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