Students at Village de L’Est Elementary School work with Dianne Barth of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on solutions to issues they identified while surveying their school yard.

Researchers at the University of New Orleans are using a National Academy of Sciences grant to create an environmental place-based education program for elementary students. One of the goals of the project is to help students make ecological connections between their everyday surroundings and their greater community, said Dinah Maygarden, a research associate and science education program director at UNO’s Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Science (PIES).

Maygarden is overseeing the project, which is working with schools in New Orleans East.

“Our project is dubbed "Youth Envision" because we want the students to envision how they want their local environments in New Orleans east to look in the future,” said Maygarden. “We want the students to understand that they have a voice and they can make a difference in their communities.”

Through collaboration with teachers, the project aims to create a curriculum that aligns with state science standards and allows for the integration of multiple subjects, such as social studies, science and art. The learning model will offer multi-disciplinary activities for students that will require scientific questioning, problem-solving, designing and planning as part of envisioning a better future for their communities and surrounding natural environments.

For example, one activity requires students to identify environmental issues in and around their school yard that impact quality of life, such as flooding, broken sidewalks, heat pockets or trash in a nearby waterway. They then work in teams to perform an issue analysis and brainstorm solutions, Maygarden said.

“Students may focus on the accumulation of plastic trash in drains and drainage canals and how this impacts water quality and flooding on a broader level,” Maygarden said. “They may wish to focus a campaign to reduce plastic use and waste in school.”

Students could also choose to identify an area that would benefit from a green infrastructure project, such as a rain garden bioswale or tree planting to address flooding or heat issues, she said.

Additional activities can range from science inquiry, such as using models to understand storm water runoff or how different soils absorb water at different rates, to mapping the school yard and community to show connections with water and the environment, Maygarden said.

The project also includes chances for students to work in collaboration with community partners to understand the environmental and social challenges for specific sites, so the work is never absent of social context, she said.

This project broadens an existing PIES science education program that targets high school students, Maygarden said. As with their older counterparts, the elementary students also will visit Bayou Sauvage Ridge Trail and other refuge locations, as well as UNO’s Coastal Education and Research Facility.

“These activities will help them understand how the coastal wetlands are connected to the Gulf of Mexico, and how these wetlands are essential to the well-being of the city environment,” Maygarden said.