Planting the Seed

It all started on a visit to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (HAFE) around 2004 as part of Alice Ferguson Foundation's Bridging the Watershed team. We were there for a teacher training in HAFE's new science module, Water Power. The cross-curricular nature of this module, incorporating science and history, and its basis in problem-based, experiential learning, created an intriguing setting in which to collect authentic scientific data.

The field study takes place on Virginius Island, a site of a booming 19th-century industrial town. By the turn of the century, however, the town was virtually abandoned. Why? Certainly the ravages of the Civil War played its part, but there were natural causes as well. The puzzle given to students at the start of their field study is that, during a recent excavation on Virginius Island, a lockbox full of stock certificates was found, and all students participating in the field study had ancestors who bought shares in the Virginius Island Cotton Factory and the land under it. In order to gauge the value of these certificates, the students must take scientific measurements of the Shenandoah River and Virginius Island (from Water Power Ranger Guide).

By conducting experiments in soil permeability, stream speed, turbidity and erosion, river height and soil type, students discover that the soil has a low permeability that has resulted in numerous floods over the years, some catastrophic. Without permeable soil to absorb the water, the soil itself was eroded and the buildings on it destroyed. The students' fictional stock certificates are essentially worthless.

This stock certificate scenario really caught my imagination. What a better way to frame a science class in a national park than to say, "go out and take some measurements." With a story behind the science, even a fictional one, what might otherwise be classroom drudgery becomes a puzzle. Becomes....fun.