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Community Spotlight: Cyndhia Ramatchandirane, The Water Institute of the Gulf

This past fall and winter, Cyndhia Ramatchandirane joined Ripple Effect for two teacher workshops. Cyndhia is a Scientist Associate with The Water Institute of the Gulf. She focuses on Louisiana delta science, specifically the physical movements of water and the transport of sediments. Her work involves multiple disciplines, including hydrology, geology, wetlands science, and marine sciences. Her personal research interests are focused on water resources, coastal restoration, and the exchange of sediment and freshwater in the Mississippi River Delta.

During our Soils and Water workshop in September (pictured above), Cyndhia gave an overview of how delta landscapes are formed, and how the Mississippi River Delta compares to others around the world. She showed us how to use our different senses to distinguish between the sands, silts, and clays, and helped us understand the ways in which water carries or deposits these sediments.

At the second workshop, Cyndhia shared with us the latest science on coastal land loss and subsidence, as well as coastal restoration efforts that are planned or already underway. We’re thankful to Cyndhia for sharing her expertise with us, and imparting so clearly the importance of understanding how the interactions of soils,water, and human actions will determine the future of the region.

We asked Cyndhia what she would want today’s students to know about her work. Her answer:

Don’t be afraid of science (or math!) or working with someone who has a different specialty or worldview than you. Math and science are both tools that can be used for a range of solutions, and are not necessarily stand-alone subjects. Working with different people with different skills leads to bigger and better results. You don’t need to take high-level classes in the subjects or hire a scientist for every project, but it is important to understand how science applies to your life, and the world around you.

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All views expressed here are Cyndhia’s own, and not an official position of The Water Institute of the Gulf.

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This is our second ‘Community Spotlight! Through our work, we’ve connected with professionals from New Orleans and around the world. They inspire us with what they are doing each day to deepen our knowledge of land and water, strengthen their communities, or empower youth. This include designers, planners, policy makers, artists, scientists, and community advocates. We are excited to share their stories and what they’ve taught us. We ask each of them a variation on one simple question: “What is one thing every child growing up today should know?”

#rippleeffectnola #communityspotlight

Living with Water

Water is a constant presence in New Orleans, even if it is not immediately visible. Our intricate network of pipes, underground canals, and pumps make it easy to forget, sometimes, that we receive over 60 inches of rain each year or that we live in the delta. Even so, water saturates the air we breathe, buoys the soils upon which we build our homes, and defines many of our most beloved public spaces.

#rippleeffectnola #waterseries

Water infrastructure in New Orleans is BIG!

When the EPNO / Ripple Effect cohort visited DPS 6 this past summer (see previous post), participants got to see the inside of a Wood Screw Pump because it was under repair. The Wood Screw Pump visible here is what draws water up and out into the London Avenue outfall canal. These are the pumps that were invented here in New Orleans, and put into operation for the past century. They are the machines that help to keep New Orleans dry when it rains.

Visit these these links to learn more about the Wood Screw Pump:

http://www.nola.com/175years/index.ssf/2012/02/albert_baldwin_wood_the_times-.html http://www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1995-6/haydel.htm

#rippleeffectnola #REexplores #waterliteracy

Advancing Water Literacy with the Emerging Philanthropists of New Orleans

We are thrilled to have the Emerging Philanthropists of New Orleans (EPNO) as a partner. Together, we are piloting an RFP process through which local nonprofits can apply for grants totaling $11,550 to support new or existing programs that advance water literacy and awareness across the Greater New Orleans Region. We are excited to announce the winner(s) of the sub-grant on November 2 at the EPNO Awards Ceremony!

EPNO works with young professionals to educate and inspire them to become lifelong philanthropists, while connecting them to local non-profits, professionals and the New Orleans community. This year, a cohort of EPNO alumni took on the challenge of learning about urban water issues, the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, and water literacy. In the field, they visited a drainage pump station as well as the rain gardens at KIPP Central City Primary. Through dinners and panel discussions with invited water experts, EPNO participants gained an understanding of how water issues affect different areas of life in New Orleans -- from schools to community advocacy to economic development -- and the different ways in which nonprofits working in different sectors can contribute to regional water literacy.

This RFP and grantmaking process is supported by the EPA and by funds EPNO participants contributed. The RFP resulted in 11 proposals. EPNO participants then conducted 5 site visits to learn more about the proposed projects and the capacities of applicant organizations, and has narrowed the choices down to organizations that they believe will be able advance notions of water literacy the most with the available funds.

Through this process, during which we have engaged lawyers, consultants, business owners, educators, and the other professionals who make up the EPNO cohort, we have learned how water literacy is meaningful to a broader range of New Orleanians. We’re thankful to have connected with these young leaders -- their enthusiasm for this city and its people is inspiring.

#rippleeffectnola #REcommunity #EPNO

Community Spotlight: Kate Hagemann, Miami-Dade County’s Office of Resilience

Kate Hagemann is a Sustainability Initiatives Coordinator within the Office of Resilience at Miami-Dade County, where her work focuses primarily on climate change and adaptation to sea level rise. She also worked on coastal climate adaptation during the post-Sandy Rebuild by Design and National Disaster Resilience competitions. While earning her Master of Environmental Science at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science, she studied how cities use grey and green infrastructure to adapt to sea level rise.

Kate joined us for our kickoff workshop in July. She presented an overview of the latest climate science, and we discussed the growing impact of climate change and sea level rise on coastal communities. She also shared how youth in Miami have made an impact by speaking out and demanding that their elected officials and city government take action on climate change.

We asked Kate what she would want today’s students to know about what she does. Her response was simple and poignant. “That climate change is real, and sea levels are rising, and will continue in an irreversible way for our generation and the next. We have to change the way we think about the coast and recognize that coastal areas will become increasingly dynamic over our lifetimes.”

Thank you, Kate!

To read more about the impact sea level rise is having in Miami, this article provides great insight:

https://newrepublic.com/article/123216/miami-sinking-beneath-sea-not-without-fight

This is our first ‘Community Spotlight! Through our work, we’ve connected with professionals from New Orleans and around the world. They inspire us with what they’re doing each day to deepen our knowledge of land and water, strengthen their communities, or empower youth. This include designers, planners, policy makers, artists, scientists, and community advocates. We are excited to share their stories and what they’ve taught us.

We will ask each of them a variation on one simple question: “What is one thing every child growing up today should know?”

#rippleeffectnola #REcommunityspotlight

Ripple Effect workshops

Workshops prepare teachers to teach the design process, while deepening their knowledge of science content. The Ripple Effect year begins with an intense 2-day kickoff in the summer, long before school starts, and continues throughout the school year with monthly half day workshops. During these workshops:

Teachers visit local wetlands, bayous, pump stations, and other locations in order to develop understanding of the landscape and water infrastructure.

With the aid of design educators, participants isolate and explore discrete design phases to strengthen their grasp of the design process.

Teachers work together on developing visual unit plans.

Teachers and design educators analyze classroom video and student work to develop best practices.

Guest lecturers provide additional context, with presentations on climate change, land formation in the delta, and other key topics.

#rippleeffectnola #REworkshops

Ripple Effect origins

Founded in 2013, Ripple Effect began as a three week unit in a fourth grade classroom at KIPP Central City Primary in New Orleans. Ripple Effect co-founder and teacher Claire Anderson focused the unit on the topic of water cities and urban water management.

She invited designers from Waggonner & Ball Architects to join her in the classroom and in structuring the unit as a design challenge, in which students would learn about local water issues by asking them to solve flooding in their own school playground. And by using the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan as their textbook, students learned about waterways and green infrastructure, flooding and subsidence.

But even with a three week unit, we were just scratching the surface of what environmental education in twenty-first century New Orleans should be. With the support of the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans, Ripple Effect has evolved into a growing community of teachers, water experts, and design educators who plan, test, and advance new strategies for fostering environmental stewardship through in-school instruction.

Together, we develop design-based environmental science curriculum that meets rigorous national science and engineering standards, while providing students with the skills they will need to lead their communities in an era of climate change and sea-level rise.

#rippleeffectnola

Welcome to the Ripple Effect Bulletin!

This will be our forum for exploring in depth the big ideas, questions, and real-life challenges that drive Ripple Effect. These include concepts like water literacy, climate change, student impact, design education, and more. We will be writing about water and its relationship to our lives in New Orleans, the Mississippi River Delta, and the world.

We will spotlight the diverse array of professionals -- scientists, artists, advocates, policymakers, designers, engineers, and environmentalists -- who inspire us. Our teachers will post here about their Ripple Effect experiences, share student work, and showcase the impact of their lessons. As Ripple Effect expands to its first year of full programmatic implementation, we want to use this Bulletin as a place to ask ourselves what environmental stewardship means, how we foster it, and why the future demands it.

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