WATERSHED

An Integrated Learning Program

for Seventh Graders

CREATED BY

ED SILCOX and MARK SPRINGER

IMPLEMENTED BY

BANNY ACKERMAN and JON SAVITCH

banny.ackerman@rtsd.org and jon.savitch@rtsd.org

RADNOR MIDDLE SCHOOL

131 SOUTH WAYNE AVENUE

WAYNE, PENNSYLVANIA 19087

610-386-6300 X 6800

Revised August 2005

WHAT IS WATERSHED?

WATERSHED is an alternative, integrated program, which replaces a student’s entire seventh grade curriculum. WATERSHED covers skills and concepts through an integrative, thematically oriented combination of classroom and on-site learning experiences. Skills and concepts taught in traditional disciplines are integrated and focused on the comprehensive examination of a specific watershed. Elements and processes from language arts, math, science, social studies, reading, art, music, industrial arts and physical education are included. A watershed student’s entire day is spent either in the Watershed classroom or out in the field, with the exception of a world language class and a math class which students take with their seventh grade peers. Curriculum standards and benchmarks not only meet, but also exceed the traditional requirements for the seventh grade.

Classroom activities and field studies involve:

- Learning what it means to be part of a community

- Examining each individual’s personal role within the room

- Conducting laboratory tests on water and soil samples

- Studying the dynamics of a stream’s flow its effects on the surrounding landscape

- Examining the geological history and resultant topography of the watershed

- Identifying and classifying the plants and animals found in the watershed

- Learning about photography through books, I Photo, and I Movie

- Conducting research with primary source documents, books, and on-line resources

- Examining the stream’s role in the agriculture, industry, history and culture of the region

-Analyzing topographical, planning and geopolitical maps of the area to ascertain interrelationships: skills could include orienteering, GPS and GIS community mapping

- Learning to create topographical maps and GIS maps

- Learning the first aid, safety, and canoeing skills needed for successful stream exploration

- Participating in stewardship community action projects such as the Ithan Valley Clean Up, Waterloo Mills project, and the PRPD Delaware Estuary Grant

- Presenting Watershed programs at events such as Philly Coast Day, The Philadelphia Flower Show, Trisomy 21 Buddy Walk and Watershed Day

-Attending and presenting at day and overnight environmental youth summits and conferences

- Establishing and maintaining partnerships with other schools such as the Longstreth Elementary School in West Philadelphia, The International School Port of Spain, Trinidad, The Cloud Forest School in Costa Rica, and The University of Pennsylvania

- Establishing partnerships with individuals from local, state and national organizations such as the Radnor Township Parks and Recreation Department, the Darby Creek Valley Association, Radnor Conservancy, National Lands Trust, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, The Philadelphia Water Department, The Fairmount Park Commission, and the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum

-Examining the student’s personal now and in the future as members of a watershed community

Classroom experiences are augmented and enhanced by guest speakers who share their expertise in specific areas germane to the watershed.

WATERSHED students also participate in numerous field trips to museums, nature preserves, historical sites, resource management facilities and industries related to the stream. On field study trips to the stream, the students put to first-hand use the skills and concepts acquired in the classroom. Students measure and map selected portions of the stream; perform chemical, physical and biotic measurement tests; observe and describe the flora and fauna encountered; and then record their results, observations and experiences in writing, art and film.

All of these experiences in and out of the classroom, because they are focused on a single watershed, provide an opportunity for students to see the interrelated nature of learning. They also provide the students with an opportunity to see their own connection with that learning, because the skills and concepts taught are immediately reinforced by practical application. This important relationship is further enhanced by the daily exposure to and reliance on first-hand, primary resources. Learning takes on personal meaning for the students, thus increasing their abilities to retain, apply and communicate their experiences.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS

The ultimate goal of the WATERSHED program is to encourage each student to gather, retain, interrelate, apply and communicate information and to foster within each student a positive sense of responsibility for and pride in the improvement of those abilities. The materials, methods and procedures employed in the program stem from the following philosophical tenets underlying the WATERSHED program. Students are encouraged to become inspired and bold thinkers and citizens of their watershed and the world.

1. Primary learning skills are processes, not sets of facts. These processes, which are used to handle information, are more important than any particular set of facts.

2. Integrated learning methods more closely match natural learning styles because they focus the learner’s attention directly onto relationships, higher level thinking skills and processes of applications.

3. Successful learning is directly tied to a student’s sense of self-investment and self-discipline and to a willingness to accept responsibility. A supportive atmosphere of encouragement teamed with high expectations provides students with an opportunity to model the 5 C’s: Cooperation, Commitment, Courage, Caution and Caring.

4. Traditional letter grades cannot adequately reflect Watershed’s emphasis on processes. Student performance and progress is evaluated on an on-going basis through projects and presentations that demonstrate student learning, self-reflection on assessments, and one-on-one meetings. Written comments provide feedback and reflect on-going development and achievement to students and families. The comments provide useful information, which specifically recognizes and praises the student’s accomplishments while delineating areas that need further attention and improvement.

THE BASIC OBJECTIVES

1.To create an environment in which students accept responsibility for their learning. The program focuses on verbal and written communication, research, inquiry and systems thinking through engaging explorations

2. To encourage students to know and care for themselves, their community and their world

3. To value student’s questions as much as their answers

4. To encourage students to become self-reliant, independent thinkers engaged in the process of learning

5. To demonstrate the interrelatedness of all learning

6. To create a learning environment, which promotes cooperative rather than competitive learning

8. To illustrate that education is best achieved when it is a cooperative venture shared by teachers, students, and families

9. To demonstrate that learning is a life-long pursuit, which breaks down barriers and transcends the limits of the school’s walls

10. To emphasize the ecological, historical, economical, political and cultural importance of watersheds

11. To provide students with opportunities to see the relevance of their learning and their personal connections to the material

12. To emphasize the importance of fundamental thinking and communication skills, and to encourage learning from multiple sources: primary, textbook, Internet, and personal interview

13. To empower and inspire students to bring out the best in one another, to contribute, and to be active participants within the watershed community

AN OVERVIEW OF THE WATERSHED YEAR

The WATERSHED experience begins with an emphasis on the Sense of Place. During the first three months of the school year, students become familiar with the physical boundaries and conditions of their watershed. The students concentrate on mapping skills as they explore the geology, the topography and the climate of the region. They develop research and writing skills as they study the water cycle, the carbon-oxygen cycle, the nitrogen and phosphate cycles, food webs, and the plants and animals, which share the watershed. Among other activities, the students imagine themselves as a drop of water and chronicle their adventures down the length of the stream; they stage Rock Concerts to share their knowledge of local geology; and they construct, using U.S.G.S. 7.5 minute maps, a three-dimensional topographical map of their watershed. They also have field experiences with orienteering and GIS/GPS Community Mapping projects.

During these early months, the class visits numerous sites along the watershed to conducts field studies. Procedures include taking the stream’s physical measurements (width, average depth, average velocity, flow, turbidity, conductivity, and temperature); completing chemical tests on dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrates and phosphates; and calculating a biotic index of benthic macro invertebrates. After each trip to the stream, the students summarize their results in a field study report. Students also study the geology of the region by visiting the local regional rock formations. Rock concerts highlight specific rock groups and describe rock types by their characteristics and their topographical and historical influence.

As the late autumn weather makes regular testing in the streams less feasible, the students direct their attention to the Sense of Time and a look at the people who have lived in the watershed. Trips through the winter months include museums and historical sites, which provide first-hand information for the student’s research into the history of the area. To share their findings, the students hold a Native American Feast Day. They Create-a-Colony, in our case a colony based on the early Swedish settlements of the Delaware Valley in 1638. Given realistic instructions from Queen Christina of Sweden, the students must select a party of tradesmen, provision them authentically for survival in the American wilderness, and describe their voyage across the Atlantic. They establish a colony and describe in detail the activities, accomplishments and conditions of their first year of settlement.

Research activities help students trace the historical progress of our area from the arrival of later settlers (most notably the English Quakers under William Penn) to the development of the milling industry, which used the streams for power, to the conditions surrounding the Revolutionary War and the battles fought in our region. In each case, while the most apparent emphasis is on history, the connections between human activities of the past and the natural features of the watershed are always emphasized. This remains true as the students continue to trace the development of our region through the nineteenth and into the twentieth century.

Throughout our look at Sense of Time, students write American Diaries in which they describe a day in the life of a young person living in each of the eras we study. The students also create a newspaper or a documentary summarizing the events of a selected period in the nineteenth century. This newspaper might include national and world news articles, feature articles, editorials, maps and illustrations. In addition, groups of students may create documentaries about their time period. Finally, the students conduct interviews and present an oral history project on a twentieth century topic of their choosing. Each of these activities brings out important information, which can be related to our watershed.

With the arrival of spring and the return of good field-testing weather, the students are ready to apply all they have learned about the physical and historical conditions of the watershed to an investigation of present day conditions. The emphasis now shifts to the Sense of Quality.

As the new round of field-testing continues, students use classroom time to study the various systems that affect the quality our lives. We begin with a look at the systems, which make up the human body. Then we compare these systems to their analogous systems in our homes and, ultimately, in our watershed. We learn about water and wastewater management systems, for example, and about systems dealing with energy, transportation, communication and regulation. By making life-sized body maps, the students gain important information about themselves and about their world-at-large. This information culminates in a final group project, which calls on the students to evaluate and describe the present quality of the watershed and to project their assessment into the near future when they will be the adults in charge.

As the WATERSHED year draws to a close, the students have seen their watershed as both a unique environment and as an important part of a larger whole. They more clearly understand the intricate relationships that tie us to our watersheds, and they realize how their actions now and in the future directly effect the quality of life in whatever watershed they might make their home. Finally, they have learned to take responsibility for their learning and to apply that learning to the real world.

- Respond to the daily Log Book question. Be prepared to share responses with fellow group members as well as the class during discussions. Complete the daily objectives and accomplishment sections. Maintain a well-organized, sequential logbook as a chronicle of the year.

- Participate in group activities, including newsletters, Open Houses, Watershed Informational Fairs, and community action projects, Youth Conferences and environmental conferences.

- Demonstrate effective, safe and productive use of time and materials.

- Maintain a portfolio of all written work to demonstrate progress in the writing process:

peer edits, rewrites and revisions.

- Maintain a Reading Journal throughout the year with twenty-five entries from a variety of genres.

- Keep an organized three-subject notebook , sketchbook, and steno.

- Organize and maintain a binder of all program materials.

- Maintain a portfolio of all work in the visual arts, defend that portfolio with respect to the elements of composition and be able to critique the work of others.

- Take (using a 35 mm SLR camera), develop and print a successful black and

white photograph.

- Become familiar with power point, iPhoto (digital photos), and iMovie (video camera). Create presentations for assignments, workshops and conferences.

- Learn to use GPS and GIS technology to mark waypoints and create community maps.

- Complete bi-monthly self-assessments, share work in progress with parents, return signed assessments and maintain a folder of all assessments, field study reports and Friday Reviews.

- Complete three comprehensive self-assessments at the completion of each unit: Sense of Place, Sense of Time and Sense of Quality

- Prepare for and conduct two student-led conferences (fall and spring)

SENSE OF PLACE - Assessments

To understand the physical aspects of a watershed, the student will:

- Draw a reasonably accurate detailed map of the region from memory and be able to locate and order streams and important landmarks.

- Create a scaled, three-dimensional topographical map of the region. Learn to mark waypoints and create maps with GPS/GIS technology.

- Conduct a comprehensive field study using physical, chemical and biological parameters, complete with charts and interpretations.

- Demonstrate an understanding of photosynthesis and respiration and their connections to systemic energy flows such as those in the human body, food chains, and regional development.

- Demonstrate an understanding of cycles: water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon.

- Demonstrate knowledge of water: its physical characteristics and its influences.

- Describe the characteristics of a stream (order, flow, gradient) and their connections to topography and ecosystems.

- Identify organisms found in and around local streams; draw conclusions about their form and ecological functions.

- Recognize and describe the major regional rock types by characteristics, age, location, topographical significance and historical influence.

-Write a Drip Essay following the path of a drop of water along a stream and through the water cycle.

SENSE OF TIME - Assessments

To appreciate the human interactions with watersheds over time the student will:

- Create American Diaries with the following chronological entries to demonstrate an understanding of a particular group of people who lived in the region at different times

Lenape: Pre-Columbian culture

Swedish Colonists (2): The Voyage and the First Year

Quaker Life / Miller’s Apprentice: c. 1750

Constitutional Convention - 1776

The Battle of the Brandywine: Sept. 11, 1777

Valley Forge: A soldier’s letter home, winter 1777 - 1778

Factory Worker: DuPont Mills c. 1850

19th Century Immigrant’s letter home

-Participate effectively in the planning and presentation of group projects such as a Lenape Feast Day, Create-a- Colony, Immigrant experience, and a mill process paper

- Conduct a “mock” Constitutional Convention

- Research a specified portion of the 19th century and create a newspaper/documentary

- Create a 20^th century vignette for a decade

SENSE OF QUALITY - Assessments

To recognize the universality of systems and their impact on the quality of life,

the student will:

- Create a human body map showing the major organs and systems, and lead a guided tour of at least one system explaining its function

-Create a story describing a fantastic voyage through the human body detailing the location and function of various organs and systems

- Choose an authentic topic that addresses a community, national and/or global need inspired by the exploration of the watershed and conduct a culminating inquiry research project based on the topic.

QUESTIONS COMMONLY ASKED ABOUT WATERSHED

How many students are in WATERSHED?

The WATERSHED class size varies from 36 to 40 depending on the overall size of the seventh grade each year.

Is this a program for the gifted?

Because Watershed is randomly and heterogeneously grouped, gifted students participate in WATERSHED along with students from the entire spectrum of ability levels. It is not a program only for gifted students.

How are these students selected?

The WATERSHED program is described to all Radnor Middle School students in the spring of their sixth grade year. Any student who thinks he or she might be interested in becoming a member of WATERSHED must submit their name by a specified date to their guidance counselor, the office, or the WATERSHED teachers. All the names submitted are then fed to a computer, which uses a random table of numbers program to list and select the students. Selected students and their parents are then required to attend a special meeting at which the program is described again and any questions addressed. Parents then confirm their student’s decision to become a member of the WATERSHED class. Should any selected student choose at this point (or at any point up to the start of the next school year) not to participate, the next student on the computer list is invited to participate. This process gives every interested student an equal opportunity to participate.

How many students generally apply?

Historically, between 75% and 80% of the sixth grade class has applied each year. This represents between 130 and 170 students each year seeking one of 40 spaces.

How much time is spent in WATERSHED?

Students spend almost their entire day in WATERSHED. They go out of WATERSHED for forty minutes every other day to take a language class and they take the seventh grade math class with their peers.

Does WATERSHED effect a student’s participation in other activities?

WATERSHED students participate actively in band, orchestra, chorus, drama, and all sports programs. Though students may miss an occasional rehearsal or music lesson due to a field trip, our trips are planned to avoid conflicting with performances. All field trips are back at school before sports teams leave for games.

How are students evaluated?

No grades are used in WATERSHED. Individual student progress is continually monitored and communicated to the parents through a variety of means. First, each student maintains a logbook and a folder, which must be shared with the parents each Wednesday. In addition to the student’s work for the week, a self-assessment is completed once every two to three weeks. Parents are asked to review the assessments and teacher comments with their children. They may respond with a comment or simply return the self-assessment with a signature. Responses can range from a signature to a lengthy comment or question. The teachers check these responses each Thursday and follow up with any additional communication that may be necessary.

Student-led Conferences are held twice during the year in November and in March. Students complete narrative self-assessments after each unit of study. Teacher narratives, which delineate the student’s strengths and accomplishments as well as those areas in which the student may need work, are included in the assessments. These assessments are sent home to parents and copies are maintained in a student’s permanent record. WATERSHED teachers are available to conference with parents throughout the year.

How do WATERSHED students compare to other students on standardized tests?

Independent analyses of standardized test results show that WATERSHED students do just as well on these tests as do students in the traditional program.

WATERSHED students have been shown to exhibit more rapid improvement in writing skills, however, than students in regular curricula. We attribute this to several factors:

-WATERSHED students write continually, and they view their topics as real and relevant, growing out of their own experiences.

-The WATERSHED teachers see everything each student writes, allowing for greater consistency of expectations and criticism.

-The WATERSHED schedule and format provides time for the teachers to work closely with each individual student and to address his or her specific writing needs.

How do WATERSHED students readjust to eighth grade?

Follow up conferences with students, parents and teachers show that WATERSHED students slip easily back into a traditional school setting.

What happens if a student wants out of WATERSHED during the year?

In eighteen years, with the exception of three students whose families had to move out of the district, we have not yet encountered a student who seriously wanted out of the program. If we should have such a case in the future, arrangements for placement back in the regular program would be made through the guidance department after exhaustive efforts to uncover and rectify the underlying reasons for the request to withdraw.

Is WATERSHED more expensive than the regular program?

No. In fact, WATERSHED is less expensive, per pupil, to run than is the traditional program of separate subject classes. The normal total yearly operating expenses, excluding teacher salaries, averages less than $300 per pupil.

Does WATERSHED entail extra expenses for the students?

No unusual materials or equipment needs to be purchased by the students. Most of our field trips are free. Those field trip expenses borne by the student’s families include occasional admission costs and some canoe rental fees. All together, these expenses amount to about $75 to $150 per year.

Does WATERSHED require special insurance?

No. WATERSHED is fully covered under the existing district insurance policies.

Does WATERSHED have a written curriculum, which can be copied or distributed?

No. WATERSHED, like the streams we study, is always the same in some ways, yet always changing. The philosophy and goals set forth in this paper create the general course, and the major projects and activities described provide recognizable touchstones from year to year. The day-to-day flow, however, changes according to the student needs, available resources, weather, and even serendipity. As a result, WATERSHED has no rigid curriculum, per se. The general scope and sequence described herein determine the direction, while continuous planning determines specific daily activities.

While the self-contained nature of WATERSHED precludes most traditional planning or preparation periods for the teachers, the unusually dynamic planning process is made feasible by true partner-team teaching, by the belief that student-directed time can be as beneficial as teacher-directed time, and by the similar belief that the students should be involved to some extent in the daily planning process. Thus planning is viewed not as a task to be accomplished in isolation during specified planning periods, but rather as a process of continuous interaction between teachers and students, an integral part of the entire learning process.

ACTIVITIES OVERVIEW

ON-GOING ACTIVITIES:

Student Logbook: Daily log Question and Summary of each days activities

Student Binder: Each student maintains a binder of all materials

Writing Portfolio with numerous essays, poems, stories, etc.

Visual Arts Portfolio

Monthly Newsletter: Each student must serve on one newsletter committee during the year, and must submit at least one drawing and one piece of writing to each month’s newsletter

Web page created by students - www.radnorwatershed.org

Open Houses: Each student serves on at least one of the four Open Houses Committees throughout the year. The committee is responsible for planning and hosting an evening program for families and guests.

COMMUNITY ACTION PROJECTS:

Delaware Estuary Grant to restore the riparian banks at the PRPD Boat House

(Philadelphia Rowing program for the Disabled)

Restoration work and on-going investigations at various sites in the surrounding communities: Waterloo Mills Preserve, Eastern College, Ithan Valley Park, Skunk Hollow, Mill Creek

Trout egg planting in Mill Creek and White Clay Creek

Darby Creek Valley Watershed Association and Nature Conservancy activities

GIS Community Mapping project with Radnor Township 2005 Heritage Tree topic

Stream Quality Monitoring

Weekend community (optional) events such as The Philly AIDS Walk, Coast Day, Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis, Trisomy 21 Buddy Walk, Breast Cancer Walk etc.

ACTIVITIES OVERVIEW:

SENSE OF PLACE

TOPIC AREAS: Geography, Topography, Geology, Cartography, Limnology,

Aquatic Biology and Entomology, Taxonomy, Regional

Plants and Animals, Climate / Weather, Photosynthesis,

Respiration, Cycles, Food Webs, GPS and GIS mapping

TRIPS: Field Studies, Brandywine Canoe Trip, Geology Field Trips, Stream Walk, Stroud Water Research Labs, Hibernia, Waterloo Mills

MAJOR PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES: Stream Testing, Mapping / Three-

Dimensional Topo Map, Graphing Gradients and Bottom Profiles,

Cycle Presentations, Water Fair, Drip Essay, Rock Concerts

SENSE OF TIME:

TOPIC AREAS: Lenape Culture, New Sweden, and William Penn

Regional Battles of the American Revolution/ Constitutional Convention/

19th Century newspapers and documentaries: Immigration, Expansion,

Sectionalism, Industrial Development/ 20th Century Oral History

TRIPS: Wilmington: Fort Christina, the Rocks, Swedish historical Museum, Kalmar Nyckel, Constitution Center, Newlins Grist Mill, Birmingham Meeting House

Site of Battle of Brandywine, Battle of the Clouds, the Paoli Massacre,

Valley Forge

MAJOR PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES: Timelines: Personal, Hanging 3-d timeline;

Lenape Feast Day, Create-a-Colony, American Diaries, Water-Powered Mill

Diagram, Declaration of Independence Rewrite, Maps: Valley Forge, Battle of

Brandywine, 19th Century Newspaper/Documentaries, 20^th century Vignettes

SENSE OF QUALITY:

TOPIC AREAS:

Regional Systems: Water, Waste Water, and Solid

Waste, Energy, Communication, Transportation

TRIPS: Field Studies, Water Treatment/Waste Water Treatment Plant, And Family Canoe

Trip, Waterloo Mills

MAJOR PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES:

Water Treatment and Waste Water Treatment Diagrams/ Sense of Quality final project “How am I going to leave my mark?”