Ecological Design Challenge: Secaucus

Positives

• This activity gives students a chance to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills to address real-world problems.
  
• The instructions and images of the actual site are included in the PDF.

Additional Prerequisites

• Teachers may want to discuss types of structural features that can help prevent flooding and erosion before students begin the activity.
• This NJ DEP site provides photographs, site assessments, permitting documents, and other information about the project.
  
• Teachers may want to share this rubric with students to communicate clear expectations for the activity.

Differentiation

• Students could work individually, in pairs, or in small groups.
• Teachers could extend the activity into a larger project, including posters, slideshows, or diagrams to explain their plans.
• Engineering and design classes could build models (physical or digital) to understand how the current debris, vegetation, and soil are impeding the tidal flow and what elements must be removed to improve the flow.
• Other resources on this topic include this video on updating infrastructure to prevent flooding in the NJ Meadowlands, this New Jersey flood mapper, and this fact sheet on climate change in New Jersey.