Rivers in a Changing World

1 Course Unit

Like many cities, Philadelphia was built and developed around rivers. These rivers historically provided drinking water, food, power, trade routes, and recreation. Human development, however, has led to flooding, erosion and pollution; these factors degrade the ability of rivers to provide ecological habitat, and ultimately may turn rivers from a resource into a hazard. Unfortunately, lower income neighborhoods often bear the brunt of these negative impacts. In the face of climate change, extreme floods and erosion are only getting worse. The news, however, is not all bad. With improving understanding of environmental science and engineering, techniques that counteract flooding and clean up waterways are being developed and deployed. Armed with knowledge of science, citizens can become agents of change in their communities. It is in this context that we propose a partnership among Sayre High School, Penn’s Netter Center, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, to develop an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course on “Rivers in a changing world”. We seek to take advantage of the newly refurbished Cobbs Creek Environmental Center, which will host a brand new environmental laboratory space. A Project for Progress award from Penn has provided additional funding for state of the art equipment, including a “stream table”; this is a laboratory river that allows interactive and discovery-driven learning. The unique setting of an environmental river laboratory that is just steps from a natural river (Cobbs Creek), and close to Sayre High School, presents a special opportunity for meaningful hands-on learning of Sayre students in collaboration with Penn undergraduates. Course material will be co-developed between Sayre and Penn participants, so that learning modules in the laboratory and natural river are connected to curriculum objectives. Sayre is a Netter Center university-assisted community school and Mr. Smith has worked with Penn students in his classrooms for many years. He has a desire to bring students to the Cobbs Creek Environmental Education Center for hands-on real world environmental education and problem solving. Therefore, this is an ideal partnership for this ABCS course. Also, there is also a need for more climate-related classes at Penn and this course addresses that need. Spring 1 Course Unit