Ripples to Waves

Localized OpenSciEd curriculum for 9th grade environmental science courses.

Project initiated 2022, ongoing.

Teacher facilitating a stream table investigation for students to figure out how the Mississippi River forms land in a Collegiate Academies high school environmental science class

Program description

Ripples to Waves is a 5-year project that supports the design, testing, and dissemination of three high school environmental science courses—one centered on stormwater flooding in New Orleans, one on the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, and one on hurricanes. The project is a partnership between Ripple Effect, Collegiate Academies, Tulane University ByWater Institute, and the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development.

Ripple Effect is leading a multidisciplinary team to develop and field test curriculum and professional development—first through Collegiate Academies and then to other high schools in the region.

Teacher Learning

Ripples to Waves helps high school teachers understand complex environmental challenges while developing their belief, confidence, and skill to guide students through a learning process that is motivated by their questions and ideas.

Teachers begin the program by building their own knowledge of place-based water issues in Southeast Louisiana during field-based excursions. Subsequent curriculum-based professional development days give them an opportunity to continue to develop their science content knowledge, familiarize themselves with the curriculum, and practice facilitating student-led inquiry. They also receive daily live coaching in the classroom from program leaders throughout the unit. Feedback sessions provide opportunities to analyze student work, use data to adjust lesson plans, and practice teaching while receiving feedback from their fellow teachers and program leaders.

Curriculum

The Ripples to Waves curriculum is designed to teach high school students in Southeast Louisiana about urban stormwater flooding, the impact of pollution on marine ecosystems, and hurricanes, three environmental issues of central relevance to lives of residents here.

Each Ripples to Waves unit consists of approximately 9 weeks of instruction, with each lesson lasting 75 minutes. The units are aligned to Next Generation Science Standards and Louisiana State Science Standards. Ripple Effect worked with BSCS Science Learning, the original authors of OpenSciEd’s middle school curriculum, to ensure our adaptations were grounded in their instructional model.

Unit 1: Stormwater Flooding in New Orleans

In this unit, students develop models and conduct investigations to answer the question, “Why does New Orleans flood so much, and is it getting worse?” across four chapters:

Chapter 1: Students learn about the underlying geology of New Orleans.
Chapter 2: Students learn about New Orleans’s history of controlling water and how that approach has contributed to increased flood vulnerability.
Chapter 3: Students learn how climate change is exacerbating the problem by disrupting historic precipitation patterns.
Chapter 4: Students learn about green infrastructure as a solution to stormwater flooding and complete a design challenge where they apply what they’ve learned to disrupt a vicious cycle of more pumps, subsidence, and fear of water.

Download sample lesson

Units 2 and 3 are currently in development. Stay tuned for updates by signing up for our newsletter!

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Students use a model to investigate the capacity of the New Orleans drainage system.
Students develop models early in the unit to elicit their initial ideas and questions about why New Orleans is so susceptible to flooding.
Students create a 3-D topographic model as part of Ripples to Waves to help them understand why New Orleans is so vulnerable to flooding.
Our curriculum design process began with a series of place-based excursions with the design team, which included Collegiate Academies administrators and teachers, researchers and environmental educators from our partner organizations, and Ripple Effect staff.
The design team conducts field investigations as part of the curriculum development process, to explore how the curriculum might include investigations both in and outside of the classroom.
The development team tracked the flow of water through local green infrastructure sites to understand how green infrastructure helps mitigate the impacts of heavy rain.
Curriculum development is anchored by a series of multidisciplinary workshops, in which educators, researchers, designers, and curriculum experts work together to design a standards-aligned (LSSS, NGSS), 9-week curriculum unit.