Is the Creek a Good Playground?

This topic submitted by Lauren Dean, Laura Englehart, Austin Kleon and Lia Silver ( kleonaw@muohio.edu ) on 4/27/03. [ Rivers Team: Lauren Dean, Laura Englehart, Austin Kleon and Lia Silver-Section: Garrison/Green]

Is the Creek a Good Playground?

An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Children and Four Mile Creek

Rivers Final Project 2003

By Lauren Dean, Laura Englehart, Austin Kleon and Lia Silver

ABSTRACT

Thank you for your interest in our project.

Put simply, our project is an interdisciplinary study on children and creeks. Based on our own experiences during childhood, we came up with the question: Is the creek a good playground? Culturally, we wanted to inquire into the ways that children perceive creeks, their personal experiences with creeks, and what part creeks play in childhood as a whole. Socially, we were concerned with what socio/economic/geographic factors bring children to creeks, and how education aids or hinders children's perception of creeks. Scientifically, we wanted to test the area of Four Mile Creek in Hueston Woods where children interact with the creek for signs of creek health. Are the nitrogen, phosphorus, pH, and bacteria levels found there harmful to children? The synthesis of our project showed the significance of Four Mile Creek and all creeks in the lives of today's children. While the cultural and social elements of our project pointed out creeks as an important and essential part of childhood (a wonderful playground), the scientific element suggested that the areas of Hueston Woods in which children are playing might be harmful in terms of bacteria. We hope that this study will serve as an inspiration for people in the Oxford area (and anyone else in the world that might come into contact with this paper) to utilize creeks for the resources they are.

Please click below for our full final project report:

http://ecosystems.wcp.muohio.eduhttp://ecosystems.wcp.muohio.edu/studentresearch/rivers03/children/final.html

Also, be sure to check out our powerpoint presentation, complete with more photos and drawings.

http://ecosystems.wcp.muohio.eduhttp://ecosystems.wcp.muohio.edu/studentresearch/rivers03/children/rivers/creekplayground.ppt

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