The information we can gather from a landscape itself can deepen our understanding of the past, strengthen our connection to the world around us, and help inform the decisions we make about the future. Considering this, working with young people, especially those who may have limited access or opportunity to engage with the natural world seems a logical place to start.
In focusing on specific locations in New Haven to anchor our study we are better able to examine what has changed over time, what has not, possible reasons for the changes we see, and the impacts of these changes.
In the courses I teach, students regularly work with primary sources in a variety of ways, but rarely, if ever, do they have the opportunity to connect a rich set of documents with the places they call home. In most cases the context they have access to consists of secondary sources, which are helpful, but still fall well short of learning based on experience. This framework will put students in charge of their own learning through the practice of using historical maps of New Haven to observe change over time and generate questions to investigate. The hope is that this course also opens students’ eyes to the idea that the landscape itself is a rich source of information, from which we can learn much, if we know how to look.
In past experience, students regularly are challenged as to how to use maps to further inquiry, support claims, and generally make meaning of them. Because of this, map reading is not only a skill to be explicitly taught in this unit, it is an opportunity to transfer those developing skills to other areas of study and apply these skills to their lived experience.
To truly understand our current situation and the challenges we face we can look to historical examples and identify patterns of development, environmental impact, human reaction to those changes, as well as their legacies. As important, perhaps, is taking a critical eye to the way decisions about land use have been made. Who made the key decisions and why? We see that including communities in the decision-making process regarding land use and development bring greater attention to economic equity and environmental justice. Unfortunately, given the concentration of power and wealth, in addition to the often-divergent interests of industry, property owners, and the public at large, inclusive decision-making often does not occur in marginalized communities. Bringing this disparity to light for students, and supporting them in their engagement, can better help them develop into active critical thinkers and dynamic members of their own communities.
Understanding these development dynamics requires deeply exploring the physical and built environment to engage the natural and social history of a place. For us, in this unit, this means the southern terminus of the Mill River watershed. Of the three rivers draining into New Haven Harbor, the Mill is the smallest and the most industrialized, running from the Eli Whitney mill dam under the interstate highway, and along the highly developed border between parts of downtown New Haven and the neighborhood of Fair Haven
The City of New Haven was built on its relationship with water including the harbor, major rivers, and canal. Less visible waterways and wetlands, including two creeks that once ran near today’s State and Oak Streets provided direct water access for early residents a mere city block from the green. Despite the fact that these “invisible” bodies of water are gone, their locations and the impact they have had on the growth and development of neighborhoods, industry and energy, transportation, waste disposal and recreation can be observed to this day. With the right set of tools and a careful eye, we can connect their locations to the contemporary city and the impact these unseen features have on the city and its people.
Studying the Mill River allows us to connect broad patterns in urban history and environmental history to the specifics of the city we call home. This will be done largely through the inquiry process focusing on the idea of change over time and the impact those changes have had. Students will “revisit” specific sites explored in the historical record through primary and secondary source use and document the changes they can observe using photography, writing, and sketching.
By ending with a contemporary environmental and social justice case study of Ball Island and English Station, we provide an opportunity for students to put to use what they have learned and actively engage community members on this topic of shared importance.
Integrating experiences in the field is central to this unit and provides access points beyond the traditional document-based approach which benefit all learners. As Robert Barratt has written in Children, Youth and Environments,
“exploratory and experiential learning activities in school grounds and local communities” contribute to “improved achievement, physical and mental health, social interaction and personal concept/esteem alongside enhancement of environmental responsibility, and resilience.”2
