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The Growth of the City: Population and Wastewater Systems

Learning Experience 1

Big Ideas

As more and more people settle together in one place, it is challenging to manage our waste because there are limits to nature’s ability to process that waste.

Summary

The amount of wastewater increases as population increases. It follows that with the burgeoning growth of cities in the mid-to-late 19th century came the problem of how to deal with large quantities of waste.

Engage

Facilitate a brief discussion recalling elements of a watershed that were studied in previous learning experiences. If you need to review, rewatch Chesapeake Unscripted: What is a Watershed? or You Tube: What is a Watershed? from Unit 1.

Students will create a model of a watershed to analyze the impact development decisions make on the ecosystem as a whole.

You will need a panel of butcher paper long enough that, when separated, small groups can work on their section.

On the butcher paper draw a river that runs from one end to the other. Divide the map into sections, giving small groups a portion of the map to work on.

→ Note: On the back of each section, label each end with the section it connects to. This will help when the watershed is reconstructed.

Students can add tributaries to their watershed sections. Students should add arrows to show the direction the water is flowing. They can also add indicators for any low areas, areas where water may collect along the shoreline, high elevation areas, park/green space, etc.

Land Use Planning

Guiding Questions:

How would you use your land?

How did the features of our natural watershed affect our land use and development choices?

Distribute stickers that represent different types of land use—Examples of stickers include: industry, agriculture, residential, schools, drinking and waste water treatment facilities, open space. Students come up with land development plans and strategies.

Have students select stickers to identify how they might develop their section of the map. Remind students that they need to decide the best use of their land, think strategically, and how to maximize resources..

Discuss their strategies for placing the land use stickers where they did.

Upstream Downstream

Guiding Questions:

How do choices and changes in one part of the watershed affect other parts of the watershed (natural and developed)?

Reconnect the watershed map. Students can view how the decisions made in one section of the watershed impact the health of the system downstream. Give students time to analyze the full map and identify any cause/effect consequences of their development decisions.

Rights and Responsibilities

Guiding Questions:

What rights (downstream) and responsibilities (upstream) do we have[1]  in order to ensure fantastic water quality for ourselves, future generations and all living things?

Examine map of current land use in the Schuylkill River Watershed.

Discuss implications of land use for up and downstream communities.

Explore and Explain

Schuylkill River Watershed before industry

To help students understand what the Schuylkill River area looked like before English settlers arrived, students will read a selection of historical pieces from the time period.

  • Read the prelude to Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2014) (link to prelude doc)
  • Use the following poems: ”Rising” p.16, “Found” p.21, “Temptation” p.23 and “John Bartram” p.28.
  • Examine Historical Pictures (Historical Pictures)and compare them to the images on the student’s postcards.
Write a postcard

Write a post-card from the time period and from the images created by the poems, and to place an image on one side and a description on the other while clarifying how their images and descriptions represent the readings and images.

Elaborate

Interactive Maps

On the screen, visit the  Philadelphia Geo History Network.

This map app will allow students to view a specific address/area at different times in history.

Use the map to look at the area around the Fairmount Water Works to see how the Schuylkill River shoreline has changed.

Step by step instructions are in the instructional deck.

Extension

Compare to Your Own Neighborhood

Have students use Google Maps and the Greater Philadelphia Geo History Network to find evidence of how the local neighborhood has been impacted by land-use.

Next Learning Experience

Teacher Support

Essential Question:

What became of Philadelphia’s natural streams and valleys?

Guiding Questions:

Engage:
What do we remember about watersheds?
How have our land use and development choices affected our natural watershed?
What rights (downstream) and responsibilities (upstream)  do we have in order to ensure fantastic water quality for ourselves, future generations and all living things?

Explore and Explain:
What do we imagine the Schuylkill watershed looked like in the late 1600s to the early 1700s?

Elaborate:
How has our local watershed changed over time? What remains the same?

Students will be able to:
Develop land development plans and strategies.

Analyze the Historic Stream Maps and the 1889 Philadelphia Times Article, “Our Hidden Streams” (attachment D and F),  comparing and contrasting  the natural topography and early drainage systems of pre-industrial (early 19th century) neighborhoods to the topography and drainage systems of the industrial era (late 19th century), with a focus on continuity and change over time as the population grew.

Engage 

Explore & Explain

Prelude to Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River
Rising
Found
Temptation
John Bartram
Historical Pictures (slides)

Keep as reference a copy of the full publication : Kephart, Beth:  Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River (Philadelphia: Temple U Press, 2014) ISBN-10: 1592136370
ISBN-13: 978-1592136377

BASIC TERMS
Pollution noun
The presence in, or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or poisonous effects

Sewer noun
An underground conduit for carrying off drainage water and waste matter.

Topography noun
The arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area.

Waste noun
Material that is not wanted; the unusable remains or byproducts of something.

Watershed noun
The entire region draining into a river, river system, or other body of water.

ADVANCED VOCABULARY TERMS
Collect verb
To bring together into one body or place

Convey verb
Transport or carry to a place

Drain verb
To flow off gradually

Flow noun
The action or fact of moving along in a steady, continuous stream

Morphology noun
Description of the shape of river channels and how they change in shape and direction over time.

Stream noun
A small narrow river

Tributary noun
A river or stream running into a larger stream or lake

Write a journal reflection addressing the following prompt: Now that we know that we are all up and down stream from other communities and living systems upon which life in the watershed depends, what rights (downstream) and responsibilities (upstream) do we have in order to ensure fantastic water quality for ourselves, future generations and all living things?

Write a post-card from the time period and from the images created by the poems, and to place an image on one side and a description on the other while clarifying how their images and descriptions represent the readings and images.

Students take notes and write reflections in their journals for a close reading of maps and collaborative examination of historical documents. This part of the activity is focused on the writing process-specifically comparing and contrasting the topographic map and historical documents taken from 1800 to 1890.

Analyze the Historic Stream Maps and the 1889 Philadelphia Times Article, “Our Hidden Streams” (attachment D and F) comparing and contrasting the natural topography and early drainage systems of pre-industrial (early 19th century) neighborhoods to the topography and drainage systems of the industrial era (late 19th century), with a focus on continuity and change over time as the population grew.

Write a paragraph about how the neighborhood (topography/drainage system) changed. Describe what factors may have caused those changes and the resulting effects (i.e. development, Industrial Revolution, etc.).

Create storyboards with images and Informational text that highlight what changed (i.e., land use, topography and stream morphology) and what remained the same in the 19th century.

PA STEELS Standards 

Environmental Literacy and Sustainability

3.4.6-8.I Sustainability and Stewardship: Construct an explanation that describes regional environmental conditions and their implications on environmental justice and social equity.

Related Standards

ELA W.7.2  Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

HIS 8.1.7.B  Social Studies: History – Identify and use primary and secondary sources to analyze multiple points of view for historical events.

HIS 8.1.7.A.Social Studies: History – Demonstrate continuity and change over time using sequential order and context of events.

EfS EU2  Enduring Understandings – We are all in this together.

EfS B.1  Local and Global Citizenship – Articulate the rights and responsibilities of democratic participation and leadership as it applies to our shared water supply (our commons)

EfS C 27  The Dynamics of Systems and Change – Track existing causal relationships [feedback loops] within the system over time.

EfS C 28  The Dynamics of Systems and Change – Define how their own (or other peoples) actions affect the systems they are in.

EfS C 29  The Dynamics of Systems and Change – Demonstrate an understanding of how one event can influence another.

EfS C 30  The Dynamics of Systems and Change – Demonstrate that causes and effects are not always closely related in time and space in a system (there are delays in systems).

Student Materials

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