I’m here in foggy San Francisco at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), one of my favorite conferences, filled with great ideas and people who dedicate their lives to making science fun for kids. It is also very overwhelming with a program guide the size of a NYC phone book.
Like all conferences, the most productive times are the interstitial spaces where you randomly meet interesting people and make connections between your worlds. My friend Rachel Connolly, Director of Education for NOVA and I were chatting over breakfast and happened to overhear some teacher chatting about their school. Rachel, an expert networker, immediately asked about their work and they told us about their charter school, the Fox River Academy in Appleton Wisconsin.
The Fox River is a superfund site in Appleton and the school is focused on learning about the history, science and culture of the river. Rachel and I, who both love curriculum design, swooned at the thought of such a great interdisciplinary project and I immediately thought of the Academy’s recent event on preparing NYC’s infrastructure from climate change. The flow of waste water in a storm surge is a major issue, one that is literally in my back yard at the Gowanus Canal. The canal has a rich Revolutionary War history, plays a major role in the industrialization of New York City and is now one of the latest Superfund sites. It is also the site of some major urban infrastructure design projects which will turn it from a disaster zone into a more livable community.
While I don’t have the time to start a charter school, design the curriculum, recruit the student and teachers, and get it up and running, I do enjoy the idea of connecting those who live and work in the area with experts in the history, science, and industry of the location. Anyone interested in taking a field trip? I’ve heard you can rent kayaks and poke about one of the most polluted water ways in the world!
