Educational Model/Illustrated Teaching Tool
The Park environmental education program leverages the unique story of Park Project to teach a diverse urban audience unforgettable lessons about our personal responsibility in the system of waste, nature’s capacity for resilience, and the potential for a more sustainable future. Our programs aim to teach students about environmental and planning careers, improve environmental stewardship in program participants, and set a precedent for urban environmental education programs in complex socio-ecological systems. Our inquiry-based field trips involve stakeholder role playing, critical thinking with stimulating workbook questions, and problem solving as students work collaboratively to complete activities. The model will be a centerpiece to these activities and to illustrate the systems that are, for the most part, invisible to park visitors. The model should demonstrate the landfill engineering that makes the park plan possible, while also suggesting future uses for the park in the “park planner” activity. Therefore, the model should be receptive to parts like toy playgrounds or model trees, but also open on a vertical axis to expose a sectional diagram. Proposed models should be simple yet flexible, kid-friendly and mobile.
