The outdoor classroom in the Mill Creek neighborhood has at least four features that teachers could use to initiate discussion and class activities exploring local environmental and social issues. They are also additions to the aesthetic or recreational value of the neighborhood. They are both functional and fun. The features are:

pavilion which mimics urban stormwater runoff and flooding

water wheel as memorial to the fabric mills along Mill Creek

skateboard park that also serves as a stormwater runoff detention pond

turtle pond fed by rainwater and maintained in natural condition

The final forms of these features depend on local artist and student input, available materials (especially materials recovered from demolition or local sources), and cost. The middle school students and local community groups can take responsibility for design, fundraising, and function. To see the descriptions of the features, click on the pictures or the highlighted words above.

Description: The pavilion is a U-shaped 30'x30' structure with a metal roof and no walls in the corner of the outdoor classroom. The roof is 7 feet high and supported by metal poles. The "U" encloses a platform 3.5 feet high. The platform is made out of metal grating and chicken wire. On the platform are chunks of various materials: cement, roof tile, poor soil, rich sod, stones, and more. These types of materials can be recovered from local demolition projects, neightborhoods, and natural areas. These materials represent many of the types of surfaces found (or desired) in city settings.

Purpose: The pavilion provides a simple shelter on the site. Raindrops falling on the metal roof make a dramatic sound. The platform in the middle of the "U", with the different surfaces of different permeabilities to water, shows how land use practices in cities and urban areas alter surface water and groundwater flow. Because the platform is 3.5 feet off the ground, it is viewable from above and below. The familiar view is from above, but the more intriguing view is from below, or "underground". With a little imagination, students can learn to "see" both above and below ground in their neighborhood.

The platform is an urban, symbolic version of the picture of the cross section of the forest, from tree trunks and forest floor above to tree roots and below, at the beginning of this section.

Some of the possible types of surfaces are presented below in a patchwork fashion to show how they would appear looking down on the platform:

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Description: The water wheel could be a simple structure based upon a picture of a waterwheel from one of the old mills on Mill Creek. It would be mounted on a structure that straddles the constructed creek in the outdoor classroom. The waterwheel can be used to do work, such as driving a small kinetic sculpture or driving a small moter to recharge a battery that lights a small lamp. Construction of this system would be a great class physics project.

The inspiration for the waterwheel in the Mill Creek neighborhood is the old fabric mills that used Mill Creek as a source of energy to run the mills. The fabric mills had huge waterwheels to harness water power. No waterwheel still exists along Mill Creek, and only brick foundations remain of a few mills upstream of the neighborhood. The waterwheel could serve as historical monument as well as physics lesson.

Waterwheels come in all shapes and sizes, depending on the size of the waterway and the budget. For example:

Some small waterwheels are commercially available preassembled and ready to go.

Some simple waterwheels are built onsite with materials which could be bought at a hardware store.

Some waterwheels are works of both art and engineering, like this Japanese irrigation system.

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Skate Park/Stormwater Detention Pond
The low spot on Aspen Street, between Sulzberger and the vacant lot, is suitable for the collection of stormwater off the street. Retention of stormwater above ground decreases the amount of stormwater that enters the sewer pipes. The less water in the sewer, the less often the sewer will overflow into Combined Sewage Overflow pipes and shortcut straight into the rivers and ocean (a recurring problem in Philadelphia.) A cement retention pond, with the area of the space on Aspen Street and a depth of three to four feet, would hold a lot of street runoff during storms. Street runoff could be redirected to this location by closing street drains and creating a channel along Aspen Street from 48th Street to the retention pond. Calculating how many street drains to close would be a good exercise for students to do (rainfall data for all cities is available for free through the NOAA website.) A small drain in the bottom of the pond could slowly release the detained water over several days to the sewer.

Mill Creek used to run right under this patch of land (see GIS map). The position of Mill Creek could be painted or marked on the floor of the detention basin. Remembering Mill Creek is difficult to do when surrounded by a grid of streets and houses. The detention pond would seem like a glass bottomed boat which you could look down many feet (and back many years) to the way the watershed used to send water to the ocean.

Because the detention basin would be filled only during heavy rain, people could sit in it during dry weather. In fact, people could skate and rollerblade in it if they lobbied for engineering the right types of surfaces and slopes into the sides and middle of the basin.

Slopes and steps are fun to do tricks on:

Half pipe surfaces are also popular:

The whole basin could look something like this:

This whole park cost $50,000 to complete. This much money would not come from the middle school. However, this much money could come from local government and non profits. This park, in Issaquah, WA, was the brainchild of local youth. They raised about $4000 of their own money and wrangled the rest from local politicians (to visit webpage, click HERE). Raising support and money for a local skate park would be a great lesson in politics and finance for Sulzberger students. The motivation for students is clear: the more money, the fancier the park. Also, more youth visibility and connections to politicians might lead to those politicians addressing other quality-of-life issues in the Mill Creek neighborhood.

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A bigger pond with natural shores will support
more turtles, frogs, fish, and insects.
And a deep end will help regulate pond temperature.
You want the biggest pond you can make.
Maybe you kno w someone with a backhoe.
Line it with heavy plastic.
Surround it with rocks, dirt, logs, grass and plants for habitat.
Variety is the spice of life.
This holds true for all species.
You want your pond to hold as many species as possible.
The more species, the more things to study!

Keep the pond natural.
You don't need to rinse the pond with tap water.
In fact, you don't want to rinse it out with tapwater,
because tap water has no bugs for the fish and turtles to eat.
Rainwater is better than tapwater
because tapwater has been sterilized.
If you do change the water in the pond,
follow this rule of thumb:
change only 1/4 of the total volume of the pond at any time.
You don't want to shock fish or turtles
with sudden changes in temperature and chemistry.
The pond's flora and fauna will keep the pond healthy,
as long as there is the right amount of space and food for everyone.
Pond life also depend on oxygen to breathe.
In this pond at left, two small waterfalls mix water with air.
The mixing of water and air replenishes oxygen in the water.
In the outdoor classroom, an artificial waterfall or stream
would help the pond maintain balance.
With good temperature, chemistry, plants, animals, and oxygen,
a pond will be a healthy ecosystem.

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