Investigating the Urban Environmental Health Issues Facing Our Community and Design of the ECCL
Connecting Four Urban Environmental Health Issues To Emeryville and ECCL
The next series of lessons will begin with the environmental health issues facing urban environments posters with student questions on post-it notes hanging in the center of the room. Beneath each poster will be two additional Guiding Questions for each issue. Students will learn that these additional questions are my challenge for them to solve with creative solutions. These learning experiences will help students recognize that each of the urban environmental health issues that they studied overlap when they begin to look at them in the context of their city. Students will also begin to identify the needs of Emeryville residents.
Obesity and Absence of Physical Activity: Where is the problem of obesity coming from in our community? What are some possible solutions to the obesity problem in our community?
Safety and Personal Security: Are there elements of the current physical design of our community that allow/encourage unsafe areas? What are some possible changes to our community's physical design that could promote safer public spaces?
Air Pollution and Respiratory Health: Where is air pollution coming from in our community? What are some possible strategies to reduce air pollution in our community?
Absence of Green/Recreational Space: How are the green/recreational spaces utilized in our community? What are some ways the green/recreational spaces in our community could be improved?
Mapping Activities: Connecting Four Urban Environmental Health Issues To Emeryville and ECCL
To begin making connections to our own city, students will use the apps Map Pad and Google Earth to highlight and color code resources and services with Emeryville, including: commerce, housing, food options, civic services, educational, and recreational spaces individually on iPads. Through this activity students will identify where resources are and develop a deeper sense of the scale of those resources within their own city. As a class we will gather to compare our findings, projecting iPads with the SMART Board. A few students will chart on large paper as students share out observations, charted responses become additions to the learning wall.
In the following class period, students will focus on mapping streets and bike paths. They will map their routes to school and where they go after school. For weekend homework, students will map their travel paths over one Saturday and Sunday. These two mapping exercises will ask students to differentiate by color walking, biking, skating, bus, train, and car travel. With their iPads to reference the different travel paths, students will gather in eight groups to share out using the Project Zero thinking routine: I used to think…But now I think… to help articulate observations and connections about their travel around Emeryville. Each group will bring their findings to the learning wall for a whole class discussion that will help students identify travel patterns within members of the class.
Site Visit Activities: Connecting Four Urban Environmental Health Issues To Emeryville and ECCL
During two class periods my students will visit two different city parks in Emeryville. The parks will be selected based upon their input. While at the parks, students will take photos, create sketches, and collect information using graphic organizers about current resources, measurements, and observations of use by residents. For weekend homework, students will visit a third park of their choosing in Emeryville to collect the same data. During the following classes students will compile the information they collected and look for trends in small groups. Each small group will share out to the whole class as they add their information to the learning wall with an emphasis on Guiding Questions related to Emeryville and the ECCL.
Following visits to parks, student learning will focus on looking at travel at our temporary school site and the district's elementary school to collect information about travel to, from, and around each site. At our current school site and the elementary school students will use graphic organizers and take photos to collect information about how students arrive and depart from school. Through the lens each urban environmental health issue, students will make observations about modes of transportation, volume of people, and accessibility to the school buildings during these peek times. Students will gather in small groups to compile information and share out to the whole class as they add their information to the learning wall.
Context Activities: Connecting Four Urban Environmental Health Issues To Emeryville and ECCL
Through out the conversations following both the mapping activities and site visits, students will be reminded of the four urban health issues facing Emeryville by revisiting the Guiding Questions related to Emeryville and the ECCL. Referencing these questions as a focus for our class discussions will help students recognize the needs of residents and identify the interconnectedness not only of the issues but also the possibility of creating integrated solutions though design.
Next, using the architects' schematic drawings of the ECCL project as a launching point, students will apply what they have learned about the needs of Emeryville residents and consider how the ECCL design could meet those needs while combating the four urban environmental health issues they have studied. The Project Zero thinking routine: See, Think, Wonder will allow students to do this through a focused conversation as a large group. This thinking routine will encourage students to deepen their understanding of what the architects' drawings are depicting, articulate their thoughts and opinions about the drawings, and then identify questions or curiosities about the drawings. Student opinions and questions will launch the next, inquiry phase of the unit.
Inquiry Based Learning
When my students can steer their own learning they become empowered to learn more and the feeling in my classroom can become electric. This is why I have chosen an inquiry-based approach to deepen student understanding around the four selected environmental health issues facing urban environments. Following their initial learning about these issues I am going to survey students to see which issues really "grab" them, and use the student responses to group students by interest in the environmental health issues facing urban environments. Once grouped, students will be begin the inquiry process with a guiding question designed to help them focus their thinking about these issues within the scope of our community and the design of the ECCL. Together with other team members they will develop an inquiry question that they want to research. Students will then research articles and gather data related to their question. A class collection of resources related to the environmental health issues facing urban environments will help support this. Students will also need to conduct a small field study or interview a primary source such as community members who will use the ECCL or the architects that are working on the ECCL to help gather more information about their topic as it relates to our community and design of the ECCL. At this point in the unit, students have experienced and utilized several strategies to collect information and visualize it for themselves and their classmates to understand. They will need to look back at the methods they used to decide how they proceed in collecting information related to their inquiry question. Following the collection of information, students will synthesize and present their findings in small groups.
How Can the ECCL Promote Healthy Eating and Encourage Physical Activity?
Possible Student Inquiry Questions: Can a living roof with a vegetable/fruit garden be built within the ECCL? How can play spaces be designed to accommodate many children moving around safely at the same time? What would facilities need to have to host a farmers market?
How Can the ECCL Promote Safety and Personal Security
Possible Student Inquiry Questions: Can a seating and social gathering space be combined with a grassy space large enough to play soccer on in the commons area? How can the ECCL open spaces reconfigure for evening and weekend use? How can bike and skateboards be safely secured when not in use while encouraging their use for transportation?
How Can the ECCL Reduce Air Pollution and Promote Healthy Respiratory Health?
Possible Student Inquiry Questions: How should a structure that has a roof gathering area be vented? Is artificial or a grass athletic field safer to use and maintain? Are there native plants that could help filter air?
How Can the ECCL Develop and Maintain Green/Recreational Space?
Possible Student Inquiry Questions: Is it possible to re-establish the Temescal Creek within the ECCL? Could there be areas in addition to the commons area open for public recreation? How can the athletic field encourage other activities in addition to organized athletics?
Learning Activities: Group Inquiry
This phase of student learning will largely be structured based upon student directed investigations. Activities that will support their individual inquiry will include studying our current temporary school site (Santa Fe), the district's elementary school (Anna Yates), and the ECCL project site to document the site and surrounding area through sketches, photos, video, and space measurements. Students will return to the art studio to categorize and discuss their findings. Students will be encouraged to use the classroom library and internet resources as well as reaching out to the design team working on the ECCL to investigate their question further.
Midway through this phase of research, students will share the progress of their investigations with the class using the Pecha Kucha format. This quick "snapshot" of where each group is in their investigation will be followed up with feedback and questions from the class. From this point, groups will be able to sharpen their focus and identify additional avenues of research.
Comments: