The goal of this project is to design an outdoor classroom on an abandoned plot next to a middle school in the neighborhood of Mill Creek, Philadelphia. The plot of land was abandoned because the ground is saturated with water and is unsuitable for development. Because the plot of land is next to the Sulzberger Middle School (and near other grade schools), and because more play space and green space is needed in the inner city, this space could and should function as location for both educational outdoor classroom and playground.

The urban outdoor classroom teaches urban dwellers that environmental awareness begins in their own backyard. Mill Creek neighborhood has a stream that is buried by 50 feet of fill; any runoff that once flowed into Mill Creek now runs into the sewer system that lies underground in the old streambed or runoff saturates the fill. Mill Creek has chronic flooding trouble because large volumes of rainwater drain off building rooftops and streets and into the sewer or into the ground during storms. The processes responsible for flooded basements and collapsed sewer pipes are subtle and even invisible to unwitting Mill Creek residents who have never been told that they live near on top of a buried river. However, principles of hydraulic engineering that explain flooding in urban areas can be taught in common sense ways. For example, storm water flows quickly off of roofs and streets and into the sewer or the ground, shocking the sewer system or oversaturating the fill. If surfaces were spongier, transport of stormwater would be delayed and flooding would be less likely. Finally, because water flows downward, it collects in the low spots, especially in the old streambed of Mill Creek. All of these mysterious processes could be introduced to middle school children with in the urban outdoor classroom.

Streams and other water bodies can also fulfill the more general needs of recreation and natural refuge in neighborhoods, and a playground with a water theme would be a step towards replacing the buried Mill Creek as a resource for fulfilling these needs. The neighborhood of Mill Creek was designed as a grid of continuous row houses with very small or no yards and no natural spaces besides abandoned plots of land and some community gardens. Children (and adults) need to be able to explore the natural world around them to make connections with that world. Depending on their maturity, they learn to respect living things of all types and gain experience with solving problems using concepts of physics and biology.

The classroom playground will include a large open structure for shelter, play, and collection of rainwater; a shallow detention pond; a cement channel that mimics many features of natural streams, a permanent turtle pond, and a recirculating water pump. The open structure will consist of a platform three feet high made of a patchwork of surfaces with different permeabilities (concrete, storm grate, roof tiles, soil, pebbles) bordered by a tall, wide roofed structure for shelter and play. The cement detention pond will be directly below the platform to catch water that filters through the platform and will drain to the cement channel. The cement channel will wind through the playground and end in the turtle pond. The turtle pond will have natural borders and be landscaped with native plants. The water pump will return water from the turtle pond back up to the detention pond and will run only during the day so that the detention pond and channel run dry at night (except during storms.)