Studio Projects
Landscape, Community, and Education
Landscape, Community, and Education
- Sulzberger Middle School is located on and near the old floodplain
of Mill Creek. The school grounds and vacant land in the
surrounding neighborhood present an opportunity for studying the
processes of nature and politics at work. How can a new
curriculum organized around "The Urban Watershed" integrate
learning, community development, and water resource management?
- This is an approach to environmental education where the whole
neighborhood is the classroom with the school at the center. This
semester we will explore the design of two neighborhood
"classrooms": an urban grove/street tree nursery; a series of
water features combining play, ponds, and stormwater detention.
- Working with Sulzberger students and teachers in the classroom
will give you an opportunity to get to know your "clients." Each
Penn student will work with one Sulzberger teacher and his/her
class of ca. 33 students (six Penn students per class) for
scheduled class sessions (see below) including several field trips
in the neighborhood and beyond.
Requirements
- Participate in all scheduled classroom teaching and field trips at
Sulzberger. Help develop classroom and field exercises.
Reading
The following readings, though not required, contain background which
you may find helpful as questions arise from your experiences in
Sulzberger classrooms.
Elijah Anderson, Streetwise (Chicago, 1990).
Elizabeth Cobb, The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood (Spring
Publications, 1993).
Michael Katz, ed., The Underclass Debate: Views from History (Princeton,
1993), see especially "Urban Education and the Truly Disadvantaged':
the Historical Roots of the Contemporary Crisis, 1945-1990" and
"Reframing the Underclass' Debate."
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in America's
Schools,(HarperCollins, 1992).
Carl Nightingale, On the Edge (Basic, 1993).
Mike Rose, Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America,
(Houghton-Mifflin, 1995).
David Tyack and Larry Cuban, Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of
Public School Reform (Harvard, 1995).
Colin Ward, The Child in the City (Pantheon).
Skills
- Reading the landscape and teaching others how to do so.
- Working with information: understanding a place from the
perspective of people who live and/or work there.
- Working in groups.
- E-mail: participating in on-line discussion.
- Reflective practice: self-evaluation; developing teaching skills.
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Last Update: 8 January 1997
