Brownfields and Youth: A Convenient Truth

Al Gore’s recent documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” illustrates the importance of educating young people about their vital role as stewards of the environment. But just how do we accomplish this?

Increasingly, educators, policy experts and environmental professionals are recognizing unique learning opportunities associated with local brownfield redevelopment. By engaging youth in applied science and local economic planning, and by demonstrating the value of civic participation, brownfield education programs have the power to resonate with young people in the classroom and beyond. When students have the chance to use emerging technologies, such as Web-based GIS, and when they can channel their creativity into designing practical local solutions, their interest levels rise, making it easier to hold their attention.

In the past few years, a variety of successful programs have been developed whose collective aim is to get kids involved in various aspects of local brownfields, such as identification, assessment and redevelopment planning. The following story explores several of these programs and provides an inspiring look at the future of education.

This past spring, high school students at Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, working with the local U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, took on a major creative challenge—try to understand the brownfield issue and actually do something about it.

The students researched the site history and regulatory records of the Wissahickon Industrial Center, formerly Atwater Kent Manufacturing, an innovative company that produced radios and other consumer electronics in the 1920s. Today the site is home to several non-profit organizations, as well as commercial businesses. One of the organizations, Resources for Human Development (RHD), eagerly accepted the school’s creative involvement.

Allowed to visit those portions of the site that already had been cleaned up and redeveloped, the students became involved in a school-modified version of a Phase I analysis that allowed them to view and learn the process, while keeping out of harm’s way.

Students in Laura Walker's 4th-grade class at Edison Elementary in Hammond, Indiana, work on a redevelopment plan for a vacant brownfield property in their community. Their plan called for building a health club that focuses on kids with disabilities. The students, participating in the Our Town Program, collaborated with middle and high school students and with stakeholders in Hammond, during the year-long project. Photo by Laura Walker.

By June, the students had produced a brochure describing the history of the Atwater Kent site, which the resident organizations can share with the public. They also designed a plan for a mural depicting and interpreting the site’s history as well as a wall plaque incorporating artifacts found at the site. By exploring the past uses of this brownfield site, these innovative students learned a lot about the history of their community.

In Kansas City, Scott Beadleston, regional brownfields manager for Kleinfelder, Inc., has been developing a brownfield curriculum for 7th- and 8th-grade students which will serve as a national model. Called the emPower Plant™, part of an USEPA brownfield cleanup grant, the curriculum is designed to bring schools and communities together to engage students in authentic community issues.

In southeast Michigan, the Washtenaw County government and a local nonprofit organization, Creative Change Educational Solutions, have developed “Lessons from the Land,” a high school mini-course on land use, public policy and regional sustainability. The course addresses demographic trends, economic policies, water quality, the planning process, sustainable community design, regionalism, and local history.

Creative Change is working with local school districts to provide professional development and on-site support as high school teachers implement the lessons in their science and social studies courses. These educators have embraced the rigor and quality of the program, and evaluations show positive results on student learning and civic attitudes. More details can be found at http://www.creativechange.net

While “teach your children well” is not a new idea, these examples prove that discovering innovative ways to teach using brownfields can be both new and exciting.

Dan Somerville is the Our Town Program Coordinator at Purdue University. Don’t miss the Marketplace of Ideas Session: Tapping the Minor Leagues: Youth Involvement in Community Brownfields Projects at the National Brownfields Conference in Boston on Wed., November 15th, at 10:30 a.m., in Room 203.

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