January 2008 Hall of Fame
Help Inner-city Youth Learn how their Actions Impact thei...
Help Inner-city Youth Learn how their Actions Impact their Environment
Idea Description
Bartram's Garden recently piloted Schuylkill Study, a lesson in which students work with an interactive model to learn about how watersheds function over a large geographic area, then they perform scientific tests of Schuylkill River water and discuss the results to see how their actions affect the natural environment along the River. Many of the students who come to Bartram’s Garden live in southwest Philadelphia, one of the most distressed neighborhoods in the City, making this lesson particularly relevant to the quality of their life, appreciation for their local environment, and how their actions might affect a wider network.
What will you do if you win $10,000 for this idea?
Our goal is to take the Schuylkill Study lesson, which was redeveloped and successfully introduced as a pilot lesson last year, and make it a core lesson this year. We aim to serve 450 children and 18 teachers through this high-quality, interactive lesson that is designed to meet state academic standards. A grant of $10,000 will ensure that we have adequate facilities, testing supplies, staffing, and will cover the cost of transportation and registration for students, many of whom come from low-income families and could not afford to attend on their own.
This sounds like a totally worthwhile project. How many of our children even know what the word "watershed" means, let alone how important it is that we are sensitive to the environmental impact we have on our watershed area.
Getting a child to begin to understand his/her responsibility toward the environment is a giant step toward becoming an environmentally and socially conscious adult. I applaud Bartram's.
As global warming is more and more in the public consciousness, what could be more important than to teach kids how to have a positive impact on their environment?
As global warming is more and more in the public consciousness, what could be more important than to teach kids how to have a positive impact on their environment?
The programs at Bartram's for inner-city kids are the best!!! Good work, keep it up...Bill
Outdoors, gardens, history, and science at a beautiful place in a wonderful city. What could be better for city schools and students?
Thank you for your comments!
Bartram's Garden is a treasure - and is a great place to feel connected to our past. I'm sure many people living within blocks of Bartram's Garden have no sense that there still is a natural environment along the Schuylkill, and it exists (as it always has) at Bartram's Garden.
Perhaps one of the students will career in watershed preservation and create a model for other regions as well. ... Craig
There's alot of votes going through, why isn't no one commenting?
Good program
Somthings fishy.. hope you don’t get caught doing something illegal (They track IP addresses) IdeaBlog Rules “You must register on ideablob.com website to be a Submitter or to vote for Submissions. You must provide your name and email address when you register. If Advanta determines at any time that the information you provided is deceptive or false, Advanta reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend or permanently discontinue your registration and/or remove your Submission(s) from consideration in the Ideablob.com Contest. There are restrictions on voting. Please see the Rules for the voting guidelines. Advanta reserves the right to disqualify any votes made through robotic, automatic, mechanical, programmed or similar entry duplication method and to prevent f…moreurther participation by any voter using such methods.
Great program at a great site. Bartram's is a gem, and helping kids understand what's involved in a watershed will help preserve it for all of us for years to come.
What a great response to our email about this site! Thank you for your votes and for appreciating the significance of Bartram's Garden, not only historically, but also how it benefits the community today.
Well we came up a little short. Well I thought I would let you all know that we didn't the blog competition. Everyone made a strong push for us but in the end we fell short. We finished with 102 votes, we had about 180 by my count. They only counted one vote per IP address, so all of you who voted for a couple of different email addresses from one computer only counted as one. I don't really agree with it, but they had to draw the line somewhere to make it fair otherwise people would have just been making up email addresses. SO THANK YOU ALL WHO PULLED FOR US AND VOTED. - previous contestant Just thought this may help
Bartram's is an historic treasure that is a vital part of life today in Philadelphia. This kind of program helps it be a meaningful neighbor.
Bartram's Garden is the the only place in this area of the city were there is public access to the Schuylkill. Further this is an area that has a large underserved population. The river was so polluted not long ago, there was almost no aquatic life - now the river is coming back and here is an an opportunity for city youth to connect the importance of water, rivers and buffers to our lives in a hands on way - not as an abstract concept. What a wonderful opportunity this would be for students to have a "real time" experience outside of the classroom!
The Schuylkill river is like a living seam between two parts of the city of Philadelphia. I think it's really cool to engage kidsin learning how the decisions we make as we live our lives affect life in and around this living seam.
This sounds like a great idea - connecting inner city youth with their environmnet in a way that connects them with the larger region. I think it will be fantastic!
Bartram's Garden is a special place and children should be made aware of it and become stewards of our future through this wonderful program. Good luck
This program is most worthwhile. It has already had success and can be expanded and added to by the existing staff.
Everyone needs plenty of experiences in which they connect up with something larger than themselves, whether it is working in their community, singing in a choir, researching in a library -- or in this case, discovering how the flow of a river has affected the very city and neighborhood in which they live. It's how we all become active citizens, to come to know and love the very place where we are located.
Bartram's is one of Philadelphia's under appreciated treasures. Sitting on the only undeveloped bank of the Schuylkill River and surrounded by struggling neighborhoods, the garden resonates with history and importance. To connect children to the local watershed is a super idea.
Thank you for your support and comments about Bartram's Garden. As a staff member, I feel lucky to work in such a extraordinary place...the juxtaposition of the urban, the green space long the Schuylkill River, and the historic significance is unique in Philadelphia.
Why don't you contact a landscaper to donate the yard waste compost to create gardens. This will help with the run off into the river.
Thanks for your idea, czech-mate (and I love your moniker)! Our historic garden, the land John Bartram used to grow nearly 2,000 native and exotic plants in the 18th century, extends right to the riverfront. We have several historic trees, including the oldest male gingko in North America and a yellowood nearly 275 years old, said to have been given to John Bartram from Micheax. We have also interpreted areas for a common flower garden and a kitchen garden and create our own compost for that. Our site also offers the only untouched riverbank along the lower Schuylkill, which is a tidal river. We recently restored a tidal wetland in the southern area of the park. Finally, we have a 12 acre meadow built on an abandoned industrial space. We built a public dock at the end of the meado…morew, which has been used for regattas, river boat cruises, fishing, and, of course, education programs such as the Schuylkill Study.