|
8th grade math and science teacher
Phyllis Green says most of her students live in the Cobb's Creek area,
but few of them realized it fed into their drinking water sources.
Water flows from the creek into the Delaware River, which is a major
source of drinking water for the area. She took them on weekly trips
to the creek to test water quality, and to clean up trash.
"Then we came back and asked them to actually interpret their
results," says Green. "What did they think was happening
and why did they think it was
happening? That's when they came up with the idea to design a website,
to let other people know."
Two students, Michael Hayes and Nathaniel Pembleton developed a
website, with pictures of the class at work, and comments from other
eight graders involved in the project.
"We originally designed the web page to let everybody know
what's going down at Cobb's Creek on how they're polluting it and
what we can do to help," says Pembleton.
 Working
with artists from the non-profit NetworkArts program, the 8th graders
also created a mural showing the history of pollution in Cobb's
Creek, its relationship to the city of Philadelphia, and how the
water flowing through their neighborhood eventually empties into
the Atlantic Ocean.
NetworkArts artistic directory Josey Stamm says the kids drew pictures
and made tile shapes for the mural, showing sources of pollution
in the waterway.
 "And
it was everything from electrical power plants to overpopulation,"
she says. "And then they were able to sculpt the life that
would be found in the Delaware Estuary, and some of the aquatic
invertebrates you'd find at Cobb's Creek."
Stamm says the mural will serve as a resource for future 8th grade
classes in the school.
|
