PLACE-BASED STEWARDSHIP EDUCATION CASE STUDIES The Cody Youth Ambassadors: Voices for Change and Hope in the Cody Rouge Community Detroit, Michigan An urban high school 11 About the case study This case study of place-based professional development for The Cody Youth Ambassadors: Voices stewardship education (PBSE) at educators, help schools connect for Change and Hope in the Cody the Detroit Institute of Technology and partner with community-based Rouge Community (DIT) at Cody High School is one of organizations, and provide funding 11 case studies developed by staff and other PBSE supports with an June 2016 of the Great Lakes Stewardship environmental stewardship Initiative (GLSI), staff of the GLSI’s emphasis. The Detroit Institute of Authors: nine regional hubs, and the Technology has a longstanding Rebecca Nielsen educators whose work is featured relationship with its hub, the Chad Segrist in the study. Southeast Michigan Stewardship Ethan Lowenstein Coalition, or SEMIS. Lisa Marckini-Polk This case study focuses on a PBSE effort that began late in the Photographs: 2014–15 school year and Leisa Thompson continued through the 2015–16 school year. At most of the sites Supported by: featured in these studies, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency including DIT, the PBSE approach (U.S. EPA) grant #00E01327 has been developed over the The Great Lakes Fishery Trust course of several years. Each school featured in a case study works with the GLSI through a regional hub. Hubs provide Cover: DIT students embrace their opportunity to explore and connect with nature at Rouge Park. Photo: Leisa Thompson Contents Quick Summary Pages 5–6 A one-page overview of the place-based education effort at urban Detroit Institute of Technology Community Context Pages 7–13 A brief description of the community and its environmental characteristics Lessons and Activities Pages 14–40 An exploration of class and field activities that students engaged in and the teaching tools used Team and Planning Pages 41–47 A description of the teachers and partners involved in the work, and how they approached planning and collaboration Impacts of the Project Pages 48–68 A discussion of the impacts the project had on the environment, the community, the school, and the students Support from the Hub Pages 69–80 A description of the support provided by the Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition, a hub of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative Looking Forward Pages 81–84 A review of future plans for place-based stewardship education at the Detroit Institute of Technology Contact information for the featured team, supplemental For More Information Pages 85–89 information on the GLSI, and links to other products and reports References Pages 90-91 Conventions in this document As you read this study, you will see special icons in the text. This icon marks a teaching tool, resource, or product that you can access and download from the case study. This icon marks a connection between the work being described and the GLSI’s Guiding Principles for Place-based Stewardship Education, developed by GLSI central and hub staff to describe the GLSI’s vision for exemplary place-based stewardship education. Certain aspects of each case study illustrate how one or more of the principles can be enacted in classrooms and communities. Quick Summary This project provided a dedicated group of students—the Cody Youth Ambassadors—with a chance to expand their message of stewardship and civic action Stevie Chilcote of DYES-EcoWorks points out macroinvertebrates collected in pond samples from Rouge Park. Photo: Leisa Thompson The students adopted Detroit’s Rouge Park and investigated issues The Detroit Institute of Technology (DIT) is school year to embed nearby Rouge Park an urban high school on the far west side of into the curriculum of ninth-grade English of environmental and community Detroit, Michigan. One of DIT’s after-school language arts, social studies, and science health with the entire ninth grade programs is the Youth Ambassadors—a classes. at DIT. program for student leaders who set an example for the rest of the student body, Students learned about Rouge River water provide leadership, and contribute their quality challenges, as well as littering and voices to discussions about their school’s pollution problems in the park, and improvement. discovered the history of the land and water in the Cody Rouge community. The project Working with their faculty sponsor, Mr. Chad marked an important advance for Segrist, Youth Ambassadors have become stewardship at DIT, because it was the first involved in their community in varied ways. time that stewardship learning was For this project, after exploratory and integrated into core subject matters during planning efforts in the 2014–15 school the regular school day, and involved an year, Ambassadors worked with teachers entire grade level. | 6 and partners throughout the 2015–16 QUICK SUMMARY Community Context Context is essential in place-based stewardship education There is perhaps no more distinctive characteristic of PBSE PBSE relies on place—including lands and waters, people and than its treatment of place as the context for learning. organizations, history, and culture—as a starting point for teaching and learning. Reading about rainforests or deserts Our sense of place does not exist in only one geography, and may be interesting, but environmental learning grounded in it changes as we age. When we are very young, we may students’ home communities builds on a foundation of experience our strongest sense of place in our homes, community attachment and place-based knowledge. neighborhoods, and favorite places for play. As we grow, we begin to understand that we are members of other For students at the Detroit Institute of Technology at Cody communities, too—a school community, a city or town, a High School, that foundation includes their school and the watershed, a state, or a bioregion such as the Great Lakes. broader Cody-Rouge neighborhood in which it is situated. | 8 COMMUNITY CONTEXT The Detroit Institute of Technology at Cody High School is part of the Cody-Rouge Community on Detroit’s west side The Cody-Rouge Community was developed between 1920 and 1950 to house workers in the expanding manufacturing industry (Codyrouge.org 2014). As of 2010, the community was home to more than 36,000 residents, of whom more than 12,000 were under 18 (Data Driven Detroit, n.d.). Like other neighborhoods in Detroit, the Cody-Rouge community is struggling with limited economic opportunity, high poverty and crime rates, and aging housing stock. However, the community is also a place with traction for reinvestment and renewal. Investments like the Skillman Foundation’s Good Neighborhoods Initiative (see image) are working to reverse negative trends by strengthening education, youth programs, and community institutions like the Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance. LINK: SKILLMAN GOOD NEIGHBORHOODS INITIATIVE The Cody Rouge neighborhood in west Detroit where DIT is located is shown in red. The neighborhood LINK: CODY-ROUGE STATS FROM DATA is one of six sites selected by the Skillman Foundation for its Good Neighborhoodsinitiative, a 10-year, DRIVEN DETROIT $100-million dollar effort to stabilize six Detroit neighborhoods that are home to a significant number of children (The Skillman Foundation). | 9 COMMUNITY CONTEXT Cody High School and the surrounding area were the focus of a massive, volunteer-driven blight-fighting effort in 2014 Life Remodeled, a Detroit nonprofit, hosts one weeklong effort each year targeting a specific Detroit neighborhood. Local filmmaker Walter V. Marshall chronicled the effort in his documentary, Cody High: A Life Remodeled Project.The movie trailer, available on YouTube, provides a view of the school, its neighborhood, and the impact of investments from the Skillman Foundation and Life Remodeled. LINK: CODY HIGH: A LIFE REMODELED PROJECT TRAILER An aerial view of Cody High School as seen in the Cody High: A Life Remodeled Project Trailer. | 10 COMMUNITY CONTEXT