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Industrial Revolution and Environmental Devolution

Learning Experience 2

Big Ideas

People and nature are interdependent with one another.  Our actions have intended and unintended consequences on the health of the natural systems upon which our lives and all life depends

Summary

The choices that people make regarding land development can have consequences on our waterways. Explore the historical impact that led to poor water quality and disease.

Engage

Industry and the Watershed

Brainstorm meanings/definitions for “Industrial” and for “Revolution.” Put the words together and discuss what the Industrial Revolution was and why it was called a Revolution.

Watch: YouTube: Industrial Revolution (20 Minutes) or World History Crash Course: Industrial Revolution (11 minutes). (Crash Course Videos are narrated by a fast talker…If you use the Crash Course and you have ESL students, slow down the YouTube video and make use of the subtitles.)

Use all or selected parts from the following poems from Beth Kephart’s Flow: The Life and Time of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River “Anthracite”, “Ooze”, “Suppurating”. Poems are linked in the materials menu.

Explore and Explain

Industrial Evolution and Environmental Devolution

EXAMINE THE HISTORICAL RECORD OF POLLUTION

In this activity, students use multiple sources of information to analyze the levels of pollution and the sources of pollution in the Schuylkill River in the late 1800s. There are a wide variety of maps that can be used alongside data collected for students to use to analyze what was happening.

On the slide deck are links to the primary source documents that detail the Schuylkill River water over the course of many years. The goal here is to have students draw some conclusions about how industrial development was impacting the water quality in the main source of drinking water in Philadelphia.

Choose the documents that you feel would work best with your students and your instructional plan.

When using the Ward maps of Manayunk 1892  they may notice that most of the unusual vocabulary has to do with dyeing and that Manayunk was a center for textile factories. For pictures of textile factories, click here.

ROLE PLAY AND DEBATE

Students can role play a debate concerning the merits of an upstream water supply and whether manufacturers should be prohibited from dumping waste into the Schuylkill between Norristown and Fairmount.

Assign role playing cards of factory owner, citizenry, water committee and factory worker. Role playing cards also include points to help students construct their arguments based on the perspective of their role in the debate. Primary source court documents are also linked in the slide deck to help students use key ideas and details in their presentations. Materials and resources for the debate are linked in the materials menu and student materials.

The students may want to know “Who Won?”  The Business people “won.” The law was not passed.

Elaborate

Compare and Contrast Land Use and Stream Morphology

Provide copies of Adam Levine’s Historical Overview of Creeks to Sewers.

Have students engage in a close reading of the text. Read Robert Frost’s “A Brook in the City”  and discuss evidence that this poem was written as a reaction to creeks turning into sewers.

Teacher Support

Essential Question:

What became of Philadelphia’s natural streams and valleys?

Guiding Questions:

Engage

What happened to our watershed when the industrial revolution came to Philadelphia?

Explore and Explain 

What was the impact of industrialization on the Schuylkill watershed of Philadelphia?

Elaborate

How has the flow of the river changed?
How has the land-use led to the changes in the morphology of the river?

Students will be able to:

Reflect on the impact of  pollution in our environment  by illustrating, writing, discussing imagery presented by the various poems.
Compare and contrast land-use in current times to land use during the Industrial Revolution

BASIC VOCABULARY TERMS
Downstream adjective
Situated in the direction in which a stream or river flows

Industrialization noun
The large-scale introduction of manufacturing, advanced technical enterprises and other productive economic activity in an area, society, country, etc.

Primary Source noun
Original or authentic historical record that has not been altered or distorted in any way

Secondary Source noun
A document written after an event has occurred, providing secondhand accounts or interpretation of the event, person, or topic.

Upstream adjective
Situated in the opposite direction from that in which a stream or river flows; nearer to the source

ADVANCED VOCABULARY TERMS
Stream Morphology noun
The study of the forms of streams.

Reflect on the impact of pollution on our environment by illustrating, writing, discussing imagery presented by various poems. Identify the narrator of the poems and identify words that relate to pollution and to the feelings that the narrator had about pollution.

Examine how the placement of islands, the dams, and the meandering of the river affected the morphology of the Schuylkill River. Using the following prompt: How has land-use led to the changes in the morphology of the river?

Identify and explain how pollution contaminated the water and food sources resulting in the rise of Typhoid Fever, using the typhoid fever graph for evidence of the occurrence of the outbreaks.

Compare and contrast land-use in current times to land use during the Industrial Revolution.

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.

EFS I.4 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.

Student Materials

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