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Water and the Shape of Philadelphia

Learning Experience 3

Big Idea

The shape of land and water are impacted by both natural forces and human need/impact and development

Summary

How has water shaped Philadelphia and how have we shaped water?

Engage

Students will participate in a Think, Pair, Share activity to describe the steps investigators take to solve mysteries.

Explore and Explain

Activity 1

Students will become history detectives, using primary and secondary resources from the city’s history to explore how water shaped Philadelphia.

Activity 2

Students will watch a documentary about why and how Philadelphia began to shape the course of water.

Elaborate

Students discover some of the intended and unintended consequences of shaping the course of water in Philadelphia.

Teacher Support

Essential Question:
What actions can we do to protect our land and water?

Guiding Questions:

How do investigators solve mysteries?
How has the movement of water shaped Philadelphia?
How has Philadelphia shaped the course of water?
What are the intended and unintended consequences of shaping the
course of water in Philadelphia?
Who is affected by those changes?

Students will be able to:

Explore and Explain:
identify and map the habitats and overlaying
human development/settlement patterns within the bio-region, assess the
consequences over time and recommend and evaluate alternatives when
necessary.

Elaborate:

obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use
science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment

give examples of how waterways in Philadelphia have stayed the same
and have changed over time and describe some of the effects, both
negative and positive, on the people living here.

research, gather and collect stories through interviews with community
members in order to get first person accounts of the how these changes
have impacted their lives

Impact (verb)
have a strong effect or influence on someone or something

Harvest (noun)
the process or period of gathering crops

Pesticide (noun)
a substance used for destroying organisms harmful to cultivated plants or to animals

Insecticide (noun)
a substance used for killing insects

Mill (verb)
grind or crush (something) in a mill

Carcinogen (noun)
a substance capable of causing cancer in living tissue

Toxic (adjective)
poisonous

Waste (noun)
material that is not wanted; the unusable remains or byproducts of something

Condition (noun)
the state of something with regard to its appearance, quality, or working order

Wage (noun)
a fixed regular payment, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis, made by an employer to an employee

Income (noun)
money received, especially on a regular basis, for work or through investments

Domestic (adjective)
existing or occurring inside a particular country; not foreign or international

Global (adjective)
relating to the whole world; worldwide

Garment (noun)
an item of clothing

Production (noun)
the action of making or manufacturing from components or raw materials

Consume (verb)
use up (a resource)

Polluter (noun)
a person or thing responsible for contaminating the environment with harmful or poisonous substances

Identify and map human habitats by overlaying development/settlement
patterns across the bio-region. Assess the consequences over time and
recommend and evaluate alternatives when necessary.

Compare and contrast the continuity and changes of a local place over
time.

Research, gather, and collect stories through interviews with community
members.

PA STEELS

Environmental Literacy and Sustainability

3.4.3-5.A Agricultural and Environmental Systems and Resources: Analyze how living organisms, including humans, affect the environment in which they live, and how their environment affects them.

Related Standards

NGSS

5-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity – Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.*

Education for Sustainability

EfS I4  Strong Sense of Place – Identify and map human habitats by overlaying development/settlement patterns across the bio-region. Assess the consequences over time and recommend and evaluate alternatives when necessary.

EfS I10  Strong Sense of Place – Compare and contrast the continuity and changes of a local place over time.

EfS I8  Strong Sense of Place – Research, gather, and collect stories through interviews with community members.

Student Materials

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