Ann Rosen Leads Fourth Graders in Redesigning the Gowanus
Building on what they are learning in Science and Social Studies, fourth graders are working on designing The Gowanus Canal of the Future. This work and more is on display in and near first floor gallery.
THE PROCESS
First 4th graders explored with different materials--wire, fabric, and paper-- to represent plants, structures and water.
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| wire |
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| fabric |
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| wire |
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Eventually fourth graders will plan and create a small part of the Canal of the Future using all of these materials. Each team will have to have factories, homes, hospitals, plants, HEALTHY water ways, recreational areas, stormwater runoff strategies...
Wonderful art work!
ReplyDeleteIn designing the canal, the students should be asked to think carefully about what kind of activities are appropriate to place on top of contaminated land. Brownfield cleanups, like the one that took place at Whole Foods and the Bond St housing development, do not remove contamination, but only plan to attempt to keep the contaminates sealed in the land with engineered methods that allow toxic gasses to escape at various points. These technologies can and do fail. These technologies don't have any proven long term future viability. Is such land appropriate for homes and hospitals?
Designing for the future includes the limits of current technology and then there is the eminent expected rise of the sea level which, on the East Coast, is to be twice that expected in other parts of the world. It is good to see that the generation who will t this landscape are beginning to think about ways to address it.