The Case
The Defendant: A nonprofit organization, The International Rowing Course Foundation upon entering an agreement with the City of New Haven.
The Terms: The foundation will have the right to promote, organize and operate competitive and non-competitive rowing events. Their goal is to attract major events to include; olympic, national and international rowing. This project will require "105 of the 295 acres" of park land (10). The new rowing course would require the dredging of the West River to a depth of 8 feet, width of 420 feet, and length of 2000 meters(11). Stands to accommodate " five thousand spectators" (12) and demolition of the Chapel Street bridge will be also required. The stands will be located along the river and the bridge demolished to construct a road through the park. The Foundation stated that at the time of this case the rowing course area had "limited wildlife resources" (13) and "minimal damage to wildlife resources would occur" (14). They further stated that this will have "no effect" (15) on air pollution. Public access will be unrestricted to a mini Olympic Village to include; an olympic sized pool, baseball field, football field, softball field, care taker home. Admission fees would be charge. Public access to the river will be limited to after 1p.m. on non-reserved Sundays March through June, after 1 p.m. week days and all day Saturday and Sunday, except when reserved, July through October.
The Plaintiffs: Residents and taxpayers of the City of New Haven, CT.
The Terms: Their goal id to prohibit the mayor and the city from leasing sections of Edgewood Park and the West River Memorial Park to The International Rowing Course Foundation, thus prohibiting the construction of an olympic rowing course and village. They also request the review of the project by the commission of environmental protection to report on the impact this project will have on the "public's trust" (16) in the air, water and all other natural resources. The plaintiff's state that "the plaintiffs are residents and taxpayers of the defending city of New Haven, are members of the public for whose benefit the public parks within said city are operated, managed and maintained, and are persons for whom a public trust has been established in the protection, preservation and enhancement of the air, water and other natural resources of the State of Connecticut within the meaning and intendment of Section 22a-15 of the General Statues of Connecticut." (17)
Building Vocabulary: Defining Political Terminology
Once the court case is presented the students will define defendant, plaintiff as a class. Students will work in cooperative groups accessing information on two terms or phrases. Each group will be responsible for documentation, to include appropriate citation and acknowledgment, and oral presentation of information from one hard copy print , two on-line and one human resource, defining each term or phrase.
Groups will choose from the following list:
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nonprofit organization and foundation
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limited wildlife resources and minimal damage to wildlife resources
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commission of environmental protection and no effect
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public's trust and public trust
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residents and taxpayers
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leasing and public parks
The class will come to consensus, through class meetings, on the terminology we will adhere to during Edgewood Speaks. Dissenting views will be encouraged to be explored and defended during individual exhibits. Each class meeting will begin with a written agenda stating the terms to be discussed, debating guidelines and time frame for consensus. This model will be built by students for students in an effort to be as inclusive of diverse views while understanding the need for any community to have common use of language. Prior to such meeting the students must agree that each member of the community will at some time have a dissenting view. These diverse views will, during our study, become the basis of many student exhibits.
The agreed terminology and definitions will be posted as a reference tool for the class. We will now be ready to apply them to Belford vs. New Haven and aquatint ourselves with actual text. During this process students will be asked to use their definitions to communicate the symbiotic and parasitic nature of the relationships that arise between Edgewood Park and the proposed project in Belford vs. New Haven. A very simple yet effective tool to help students understand symbiotic and parasitic relationships is the use of clams from the Long Island sound. Schooner, Inc. (17) will set up a salt water tank in the classroom. Students will then collect clams that have barnacles living on them in a symbiotic relationship. Tube dwelling worms on clams represent the parasitic relationship. The larger the area taken over by the tube dwelling worm, the greater the rate of decay of the clams. I would directly pose the question: Is it possible for a relationship in nature to appear first symbiotic when in fact it could become parasitic?
Identifying and Interpreting Effects of Change
The following graphic organizer will be used by cooperative groups to identify and log one physical change prompted by Belford vs. New Haven and a possible effect this would have in Edgewood Park.
(image available in print form)
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The students will be encouraged to show the multiplicity of change by extending their organizer outward, parallel and horizontally as needed. Each group will be required to create a dual image of Edgewood Park. One side will represent the park prior to the proposed change, the other, after the proposed change. The graphic organizer will be matted onto the back of the image.
The Mural
An aerial view mural of Edgewood Park will be created on one wall in our science lab using a grid system superimposed on an aerial photograph, similar to the 1834 US map located on UCONN's Magic web site. Students identify the specific block they wish to reproduce from the aerial photograph. Using a metric ruler, they will block out patterns of lines and color from their section of the aerial photograph on graph paper prior to painting it on their block of the mural. Using a piece of chalk the lines and colors are marked on the wall. Once completed acrylic paint can be mixed and applied to the wall. The graphic organizers will be hung above the mural with a string zooming into the location of the proposed change. If the proposed change viewed as having multiple effects, then that many strings must zoom into the park. Each new change will add a barrage of string, with the goal of exemplifying the impact one physical change can have on its environment and why we must be very careful and thoughtful when making such decisions.