A Sense of Place

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A Sense of Place

• Bryn Mawr Science Institute Project
• Deb Hazen
• July 2006

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It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the
modern methods of instruction have not yet
entirely strangled the holy curious of inquiry.
It is a very grave mistake to think that the
enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted
by means of coercion and a sense of
duty. Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
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What good questions did youask in
schooltoday?
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Our Questions for the Year

• Who am I?
• Where am I?
• How does where I am (time and location) influence
  who I am and how I see the world?

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Prior Learning

• Who am I?
• What is Culture?
• Our Watershed
• Thoreau/Finding Walden

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Getting Started

• You and your partner need one answer sheet.
• Decide who will operate the mouse and who will
  record answers.
• Look at the 18 slides. Identify the location and
  be as specific as you can.
• The first one is done for you!
• There are some challenge photos in the
  collectionthese are photos of Lansdowne
  locations in the past. Can you guess where these
  photos were taken?

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Example
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Example Answers(They all work! Use one or all to
identify the location. Be as specific as you
can.)

• Name it---Lansdowne Friends Meeting
• Give me an address110 N. Lansdowne Avenue,
  Lansdowne, PA
• Get me there---From the intersection of Baltimore
  Pike and Lansdowne Avenue travel north on
  Lansdowne Avenue until you get to Stewart Avenue
• Give me a hint---Its sort of across the street
  from the Wawa on Lansdowne Avenue

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Photo 1
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Photo 2
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Photo 3
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Photo 4
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Photo 5
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Photo 6
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Photo 7
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Photo 8
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Photo 9
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Photo 10
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Photo 11Okay, it isnt really a photo, but can
you tell me what it is?
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Photo 12
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Photo 13
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Photo 14
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Photo 15
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Photo 16
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Photo 17
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• Turn in your answer sheet.
• High five your partnerfor the next part of this
  assignment you are flying solo.
• Click to move to the next slide and receive your
  instructions.

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Next Step

• Pick up a large sheet of paper and a set of
  colored pencils.
• Working alone, draw a map of Lansdowne from YOUR
  memory.
• Place the school at the center of your map
• Include as much detail as you can
• Dont forget all of those things Ogg likes to see
  on maps ?

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Walking to the Ends of Lansdowne
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Walking to the Ends of Lansdowne Activities

• Find the locations from the photos
• Notice what you notice
• Field journals
• Soundscape recordings
• Sketching
• Photography
• Modify personal maps

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Create a Class Map

• Using the observations from Walking to the Ends
  of Lansdowne students will create a large, class
  map of the borough

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Comparing Maps

• Post class generated map, topographical maps, and
  political and historical maps of various scales
• Discuss the nature of maps
• How are they different?
• What do they tell us?
• Which are better?
• Who would use which map?
• Leave the maps up throughout the next activity.

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Where in the cosmos is Lansdowne, PA?

• Use the following web resources to place
  Lansdowne in the cosmos
• Where is M13?
• A logarithmic map of the universe
• Power of 10
• Continue a discussion of scale and how we
  identify our place. Introduce the concept of time
  as well as physical location when identifying
  place.

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Small Group Projects

• Earlier in the year we studied our watershed and
  it will be important for students to recall what
  they learned about the environment and geography
  of the region as they investigate the human
  stories associated with Lansdowne.
• Group One A story about Lansdowne before
  incorporation
• Group Two A story about Lansdowne after
  incorporation
• Group Three A story about Lansdowne Friends
  Meeting
• Group Four A story about the founding of
  Lansdowne Friends School
• Students will not complete exhaustive histories
  group interest and time will limit scope and
  ensure that there are many more questions
  remaining to answer at the end of this project.
• Students will use local historical society, web
  resources, National Archives, Swarthmore Quaker
  Archive, Meeting members, Simpson Garden
  residents
• Culmination Potluck dinner to share discoveries
  with the school community

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Individual Projects

• Students will be encouraged to add a personal
  page to the story of our town and/or school.
• My story in Lansdowne
• My relationship to the school
• Oral history (students will take each others)
• Photos
• Stories
• Impact of having been here and now
• Culmination Sharing our stories

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Next Steps

• We complete this unit of study at the end of
  April.
• During the month of May, students focus on
  independent projects.
• Past projects Finding my Walden, jewelry design
  for charity, What do plants need to thrive?,
  biographies, planning a trip to _____, kayak
  design and use, inventions, sports histories,
  How does ______work?, skateboarding, video
  production...
• Projects grow out of individual student interest
  and are often sparked by something that we
  touched on in class but did not get a chance to
  explore in depth. There will be much in this unit
  on place that could spark independent project
  ideas (ex. microwaves).

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Long Term Goals

• A web based record of the stories of our school
  and town. New stories to be added each year
• A web based observation diary that places the
  school in relation to our watershed and reports
  both student observations and interactions with
  this ecological region. This might include data
  collection about weather, student decision to
  make manual weeding a service project rather than
  using herbicides on the property, progress in
  achieving Project Green certification, water
  testing, Marlyn Park surveys, bird migration
  records

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Outcomes

• Students will gain insight into
• The interaction between human agents and the
  environment
• Their place both physically and historically.
• Students will have opportunities to strengthen
  the following skills
• Critical thinking
• Observation both qualitative and quantitative
• Story telling
• Sustained, self generated inquiry.
• The learning community will model student/teacher
  co-learning.