Teaching Storm water Management at the Lea School

1. Teaching Storm water Management at the Lea School Maya Chacko and RemiGuidoum

2. Lea Elementary • In West Philadelphia • Fourth graders

3. Project Objectives • Make knowledge about storm water management available to children who might not have access to it • Environmental awareness should be taught from an early age in order to be effective

4. Class 1 • Topic was understanding the need for storm water management • Concepts to convey: Heavy rainfall, sewer overflow, water treatment • Questions for the beginning of class • Experiment • Questions for the end of class

5. Class 2 • Topic was rain gardens and green roofs • Concept to convey: soil can absorb storm water • Questions for the beginning of class • Power point presentation • Experiment • Questions for the end of class

6. Class 3 • Topic was understanding how to keep rivers healthy • Concepts to convey: Erosion, sedimentation, high water flow • Questions for the beginning of class • Experiment • Questions for the end of class

7. How Effective were the Classes? • Relevance to what the class was studying • Children’s engagement in discussion • Children’s interest in the experiment • Children’s understanding and recall of experiments • What we learned from teaching this class

8. Ideas for Future Classes • Take a field trip to Penn’s campus to see storm water infrastructure • Go out when it rains to see actual water runoff • Use wikiwatershed.org