Week 8 - Field Trip to Visit a Landscape Architect

Today the GeoSquad took a field trip to Wilkinsburg to meet with Sara Madden a landscape architect at Stormworks. Sara works on designing landscapes that capture and soak up stormwater using rain gardens, rain barrels, and cisterns.

She installs these practices on residential lots and at schools in Pittsburgh. Sara started our visit with a short presentation of photos from some of the projects she designed and installed.

Sara showing us some of her design work.

After the presentation we went to visit some local projects within walking distance of her office. Our first stop was a patch of permeable pavement, called Flexipave. As we stepped from the concrete sidewalk to the Flexipave sidewalk we noticed a bit more squishiness under our feet. The pavement is made out of recycled tires!

We tested the pavement with some buckets of water and watched the water disappear into the pavement. We also learned that the pavement needs vacuumed every year. The resident who installed this sidewalk uses a shop vac to suck dirt out of the pavement.

Testing the permeable pavement.

We also saw a dozen rain barrels attached to homes. These were really large rain barrels that hold 133 gallons of water! The barrels are designed to capture 1/4 of the runoff generated by a 1 inch rainstorm on the average roof (1,000 sq ft) in Wilkinsburg.

Rain barrel at the Edgewood train station.

Our last stop was a rain garden at the Edgewood train station. The rain garden captures runoff from the roof of the Edgewood train station. We learned that rain gardens should be at least 10 feet from the building to prevent water from soaking into the basement.

This rain garden captures roof runoff.

It was pretty cool to see real examples of rain gardens and rain barrels in our city. We are very grateful that Sara was able to share so much information about stormwater management. Here are some more photos from our trip!

A very large rain garden at someone's house.

Standing on the permeable pavement.

The video team hard at work.

Checking out the rain garden.

Week 8 - Hardcore Exhibit Building

As the deadline for our exhibit approaches, the teens are working up a storm getting all of our ducks in a row. With all of our design plans finalized, we are working on building and information gathering.

Today, before we got our hands dirty, intern Lindsay prepped the teens for our visit with Landscape Architect Sara Madden on Thursday. The teens were broken up into three groups and each given a scenario that a Landscape Architect would encounter. One group was in charge of designing the landscape for a private home and made sure to include a giraffe and an octopus in their design!

Private home design by Ian, Justice, Oddyssey and Tonesha. Notice the giraffe and octopus pool.

After that activity GIS Manager, James Whitacre, gave the teens the low-down with digital cartography and how we can use it to enhance our exhibit. He stayed to work with the group focusing on map displays.

James Whitacre talking to the teens.

Finally, we spent the rest of the day working on building the exhibit including painting the house, making informative flip panels, and creating the flower garden.

Powerhouse L adding some color to the playhouse.

Makin' some flowers!

Week 7: Non-Profit Activity & Finalizing Mock Ups

Today we did an activity to learn more about non-profit organizations in the city and what a non-profit does. For the activity the teens worked in small groups and imagined that they were employees for 3 Rivers Wet Weather. Each group came up with a plan to solve Pittsburgh's combined sewer overflow problem. The three groups came up with some good ideas for solving the problem that included a greenway along the rivers, storage tanks under parking lot, replacing leaking pipes, and providing discounted rain barrels.

Presenting our stormwater solution plans.

The second half of class was spent in project groups for the exhibit. The teens worked on finalizing their mock up plans so we can get ready to send things to the printer for the big opening. The video project group also learned more about filming as well as editing the clips together.

Interview practice to prep for interviewing our Green Professionals.

The house and rain barrel group measured the house so we can get gutters to add and they worked on the rain gardens that will accompany the house.

We've gathered most of the supplies for the house.

Week 6: Mock Ups and Construction

This week was all about figuring out what our exhibit is going to look like.  We've added new components for the second opening like a playhouse with a connecting rain barrel and gutter that represents what people can do at home to help conserve water.

With the house put together we just need to add the gutters and rain barrel. 

Another new component to our exhibit is flip panels with facts about water that involve the public directly. These facts are important because it gives the public a reason to care about what is happening with their water, especially because these facts deal with health, money, and recreation.  

Researching water facts.

Week 5: Debates and Developing Material Lists

We kicked off today with a heated debate about ALCOSAN's plan to address combined sewer overflows. Pairs of teens were given specific roles including the president of ALOCSAN, a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency, an environmental engineer, an environmentalist, and a landscape architect. They then debated which solution, pipes and tunnels or a mix of green infrastructure and pipes, was the best solution. In the end, the team representing ALCOSAN won the debate because they had the strongest arguments.

Preparing for the debate.

After the debate we had a guest visitor! Our first green jobs guest! Brent Lahaie a civil engineer at the Urban Redevelopment Authority came in to talk to the Geosquad. Brent described the basics of his job and then the teens got to ask him questions.

Brent meeting with the Geosquad.

We wrapped up the day with an exhibit model showcase. The teens explained their exhibit ideas and models to the group. After hearing all the ideas we worked on creating lists of materials we would need to scale up the models for the exhibit.

Exhibit showcase.

Week 5: Mock Designs

Last week the Geosquad came up with their team mission for the semester. The mission is to, "Improve the exhibit so that visitors experience and understand “green jobs” and the sustainable solutions that collect, clean, and conserve storm water overflows." Today we looked at the exhibit sketch and tried to create mock (2-D or 3-D) models of one piece of the exhibit.

Brainstorming how water pollution impacts our lives.

One team worked on updating the main information panel of the exhibit. The group created two potential mock maps that allow visitors to learn about where impervious surfaces are in the watershed. Both groups used transparent paper to represent different layers (e.g. trees or roads) on the map.

Potential map design with sliding transparent map layers.

The information group also created a flip panel board to communicate why visitors should care about water pollution. They created two panels describing the value of clean water for recreation, two for health, and two for the economy.

Mock flip panels about how water pollution affects YOU!

Two other teams worked on mocking up the what visitors can do section. There were two ideas for potential rain barrel designs. They both mocked up the main exhibit panel with a roof, downspout and rain barrel.

Rain barrel design 1.

Rain barrel design 2.

The last group worked on designing the rain garden. They used stones, fake grass, and pipe cleaner flowers to represent the components of the garden. 

Rain garden mock up. 

We wrapped up the day with a presentation on ALCOSAN to prepare the teens for their mock debate on Thursday. Teens learned about the two different solutions, grey versus green, to solve Pittsburgh's sewer overflow problems.

Learning about grey and green options in ALCOSAN's plan.