Sergina Bach's middle school science students recently applied design thinking to their work in creating environmental impact statements for a hypothetical building project to be completed on our Linda Vista campus site.
The teacher provided a very open ended project design that allowed students to create their own learning process and outcomes. It also encouraged a lot of creative thinking on both sides of the issue, e.g., it made the students take the side of being in favor of construction AND take the side of not being in favor of construction.
The resulting environmental impact studies came back and the teacher was happy to see a high level of detail and an even higher level of thinking that went on with the work from the students. They had taken the project and run with it... and they came back with some highly creative ideas that would both meet the construction needs for the campus while also strongly considering the environmental sustainability of the area involved.
Here is one of the projects that came back:
Environmental impact study for Pool and Parking lot
By A S, A V , and A I
We believe that Francis Parker needs more parking and a swimming pool. A parking lot is extremely necessary for big events such as homecoming, arts night, and back to school night when so many people are there and the majority have to park far away or we have to use the parking of other buildings. The parking lot would help solve this problem and also help bring more students to this school since they have the relief of knowing that they won't be late due to parking.
The pool would provide a variety of sports including a swim team (which we do have but the pool being there would be so much more convenient for them), a water polo team, and many other things. It would also be nice to have a pool, so you can go there for recreational uses, educational uses and maybe even the occasional party. We could also charge the public money to use our pool. Extending our parking lot and building a pool on campus would be great for our school.
Alternatives
One option for building a new parking lot would be expanding our faculty parking lot into the chaparral. This would be beneficial because that way the students could use the faculty lot and the staff still have places to park. We decided that the parking lot would be best if put here because we can use our space, and still leave most of the chaparral untouched. With this new addition to the parking lot we could fit more cars so more people could have places to park.
Another option is to put the parking lot in the back near the path to the chaparral and connect it to the road where the buses are. This would be beneficial because it would be out of the way and it would be big enough to fit a large amount of people.
A third alternative is that we could build more parking on top of the existing student lot. It should be two stories so it can fit more people. This way we could make more parking without effecting the chaparral. However, this option would be very expensive.
We also thought that we should put the pool in the space behind the library. Currently, this space is open, and is a perfect spot for the pool and a small building next to it for equipment and changing. It would be close to other structures, and because of this, wouldn’t affect the chaparral as much as it would if we built our pool deeper into the chaparral. The minimum harm to the chaparral would come if we built our pool here. Also, if we put it here it would be close to the upper school and middle school which would be ideal.
A second option is that we put the pool next the the field house and cafeteria area. This wouldn't affect the chaparral at all. However, it would be far from the upper school making it difficult to get there when the need to, and will be right in the middle of our school, making it inconvenient.
A final alternative would be to build the pool off of the path that leads us to the chaparral. Here, it will also be out of the way and easily accessible to the middle and upper school.
Location and Design
We think that the best option of where to build our pool would probably be behind the library. This is helpful to the environment because it is close to other buildings and is at the beginning of the chaparral. Here, the least number of organisms will be harmed, and it is also convenient for us. Having the pool behind the library will keep it out of the way of all our school buildings, but will also be close by to both the middle and the high school. We were thinking to build a small building next to the pool to keep pool equipment and to change, as the only inconvenience would be that the gym is a not very close to the pool. We want to be innovative with our pool design, something that no other school has seen before - a two story indoor pool.
The first floor of our pool will be big, and will have a deep end and a shallow end. Our second floor, however will only have a 4 ft deep pool. This will be useful for people who want to practice tricks like handstands and flip turns and need to use a shallow end. This pool will be smaller, and more to play around in. The first floor pool will be for swim team practice, and lap swimming and diving.
On the second floor, there will also be a hole in the ground (with a small fence around it) for people to jump into the deep end of the first pool. These two pools are above each other in a glass poorhouse building. A glass building (except for the first floor ceiling) will let in light, so we wouldn't have to pay too much for electricity. The second floor's ceiling will be glass. Again, this would let in light, and would be great if we could arrange an activity to go swimming at night (we could look up at the stars while swimming).
On the roof, we would have a small jacuzzi. Next to the pool house we plan to include a ramp to an equipment building. The only problem about this location is that it isn't close to the gym and the locker rooms. To solve this problem, we have decided to include a equipment building which will be used as a place to change and as a place to store all of the equipment (pool noodles, floats, etc).
We could also charge the public money to come use our pool. This would be great, because it would make up for the amount of money it took to build the pool, and we could use some of the money to plant more trees and bushes to make up for the ones we had to cut down and clear. Our pool will be easily accessible to the public, because it will be out of the way of the rest of our school buildings. The latitude of the pool is approximately 32.76999137, and the longitude is -117.17730984.
Our parking lot will be built right next to the already existing parking lot. Building it here would be great because it's close to other buildings and won't affect organisms and the chaparral very much. This could be used as a teachers and staff parking lot, and now both the students who drive themselves to school and the teachers would have places to park. As an advisory activity, each advisory could spray paint a part of the new parking lot to make it colorful and unique. Maybe we could spray paint the center of it with our school name and logo. The latitude of the parking lot is approximately 32.77052083, and the longitude is -117.17864022.
Below is a link to a video summarizing our pool design:
Below is a video summarizing our parking lot design:
The four figures below show four different views showing the location of the pool and parking lot. The actual design of the pool and parking lot were described in the “Location and Design” section above.
Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
There are lots of biotic factors that will be affected by the project. Some of the animals in the proposed building areas are california towhees, spotted towhees, western scrub jays, California Thrasher, wrentit(all omnivores), bats, bobcats, coyotes(scavengers). There are even Virginia opossums(scavengers), gray foxes, gopher snakes, bushtits, mountain lions(carnivores), and big eared wood rats(herbivore). Brush rabbits, bezoar goats, red tailed hawk, black tailed jack rabbit, and cactus wren(consumers). The plants in the proposed areas are big berry manzanita, scrub oak, chamise, ceanothus, and mountain mahogany. There are so many more organisms that live in the proposed area.
Picture 1: An energy pyramid showing some of the animals in our chaparral and showing the energy decrease between each level of the pyramid.
Picture 2: A food chain showing some of the animals in our chaparrel.
A food web showing some of the organisms living in the Francis Parker chaparral
Building a parking lot or pool on our chaparral would definitely affect the organisms living there. Looking at the food chain above, you will see that each organism is dependent on another (except for the producer and the sun). If, for example, the big eared wood rats get wiped out from that area, the gray fox won't have anything to eat. The gray foxes of the area may migrate, start eating things other than their natural diet, which might become unhealthy, or die out because of lack of food. The hawks would face the same situation as the the foxes. They would find no foxes to eat, and even if they do, the hawks might get sick or have trouble reproducing because the foxes ate something that is not part of their natural diet. Removing such a small, seemingly unimportant woodrat wouldn't seem like a big deal to other organisms. But really, removing them would cause a big ripple effect, and in the end, wipe out other much bigger organisms like hawks and foxes. In the same way, even removing a small part of the organisms in the chaparral would create a big effect to the rest of the organisms.
But, on the other hand, the situation described above would only happen if one type of organisms' population drastically decreased or if the organism got wiped out. We are going to build our pool and parking lot in a small part of the vast chaparral. This wouldn't just decrease the population of one organism, it would decrease the population of most of the organisms in the area. Let us give you an example: If 100 rabbits, 50 snakes, 2000 plants and bushes lived in the chaparral, and 30 hawks circled overhead, they would be scattered throughout the chaparral. If we were to build on a small part of it, maybe 10% of the chaparral would go. In this case, the population of each type of organism would approximately decrease by 10%. Now there would be 90 rabbits, 45 snakes, 1800 plants and bushes, and 27 hawks. There wouldn't be a change in the food chain or the energy pyramid, because no organism suffered very much more than the rest. Now there are less organisms, but they will still grow at the same rate they did before. Of course, the chaparral will be affected by the building, but in the end, the food chains, growth patterns, and energy flow wouldn't be changed very drastically.
If we build these parking lots and pool in the chaparral area then the animals would have to leave the area. If there aren't any animals or healthy animals then the other animals wouldn’t get the food they need. If the animals don't get food then they don't get energy and they would all have to move out. Without the animals to eat the chaparral it would keep on growing and would eventually have to get cut back as to not interfere with the parking lot and pool.
But, as stated above, this would only happen if one species was wiped out from our chaparrel or it's population was dramatically decreased. But if we only cut away a little part of the chaparral, the same percent of population decrease would happen to all the other organisms. This way, the energy transfer and flow between organisms wouldn't be changed very much, and neither would all the food webs, and the overall growth of the ecosystem.
This is why we decided to build the parking lot and pool in areas where the animals would still be able to live a peaceful life in their chaparral habitat. If we were to build the parking lot and pool in the chaparral area then the animals would move or die out.
The affected environment would be behind the library which would affect any existing or social settings but venture a little bit into the environment. The main thing that would be affected is the plants and possibly small animals. We would try to avoid this by checking the area first and making sure this is a safe area to place a pool.
But it is not just the biotic factors of the chaparrel that will be affected. Abiotic factors will also be affected because of this project. When we clear the area of trees and bushes, water will have no place to absorb. Because of this, it will keep flowing, and it will take the soil with it. This will cause soil erosion. As stated below, one of the ways we could mitigate this is to plant more shrubs and trees that are native to the chaparral, especially on the slope. This will help prevent water run offs, which in turn will reduce the soil erosion in our chaparrel.
Another abiotic factor is the water. San Diego is in a big drought. Building a pool might take away the water we could have been giving to our chaparrel. Our solution for this problem is to use the water from cleaning the pool to water the chaparrel. Instead of having a chlorine pool that would hurt the environment, we plan to have a saltwater pool. Doing this will also mitigate the impacts our project will have on the environment.
An impact of building a pool and a parking lot in the proposed area is that it will hurt the chaparrel. There are many animals and plants that live here (explained in more detail above). But we have tried to find a solution so that it doesn't harm the chaparrel as much. First of all, both the parking lot and pool will be built close to other structures, and not deep into the chaparrel. This is the area that is least inhabited by animals. We will also try to use the money we get from the pool (from charging the public to use it) to plant more trees and bushes. Hopefully, animals that we harmed will start living here. In this way, we will be making up all of the harm we did to the chaparrel. With the plants planted we could attract more animals to repopulate, and construct our pool and parking lot without destroying the ecosystem.
We could also mitigate the impact our project has on the chaparral is to help it grow better. We could do this by introducing microorganisms to our chaparrel. These include bacteria and fungi. This will help the chaparral grow better, by making it easier for the chaparrel to adapt to sudden abiotic changes.
A picture of an abiotic factor in the chaparral - fog
Another picture of an abiotic factor in the chaparral - drought
Should we build?
Deciding whether to build or not to build on our chaparral was a hard decision for us to make. On one hand, our chaparral is an important part of our wildlife and ecosystems and we shouldn't build on it and harm all of the organisms, but on the other hand parking lot and a pool would be a great and useful addition to our school. We have expressed our opinions in two paragraphs below. In the last paragraph, we have decided on one option - to build a pool, but not a parking lot.
Not Build
After collecting all the information, we believe that building a parking lot and swimming pool might not be a good idea. We have proof that there are living organisms in the chaparral at our school. We have seen the plants and some have actually seen a small creature such as a fox. I agree that there is lots of space but if we get rid of one area, however small, it will still harm a living thing. There are a variety of species in this chapparal that we haven't really observed yet and this could affect them whether it is where they live or perhaps a hotspot for their prey. There should always be a balance, whether it be with economics and the environment and something like this. There should be times when we do something such as build something new and a time when we should protect this environment. I understand that but we also need to first take note on what we are actually building on. There have been sightings in that chapparal of holes which could be home to small rodents, a snake, or even a burrowing owl. This land has been theirs for a long time and to build over it would be a bad idea.
Build
On the other hand, our evidence also proves that we have a lot of chaparral that is owned by Francis Parker. We could use a small part of it to build a pool for our school. We think that maybe a parking lot is not necessary, because though parking is an issue in our school property, there is a parking lot across the street. People could park there. Although some people say that this takes too long and the kids will be late for class, this issue has nothing to do with the parking. If the people know they have to park across the street, they should know to come a little earlier. A pool would be fun, but also helpful to our school. One reason is that it will be a lot more convenient for our swim team, it would save them time and money for them to use a pool that is on campus. Another good reason to build a pool is that, though our pool design may be a little expensive, but it is unique and we could get money from the public to come use it. With this money, we could plant more trees and bushes to make up for the ones we had to clear. This way, we will have a good balance between our school's development needs and the environmental needs of the chaparral.
Final Decision
Looking at both options here, we think that it would be useful to build a pool in our chaparral area. As stated above, yes some harm will come to our wonderful chaparral, but we believe we have found a balance between the environmental needs of our chaparral and our school’s development needs. As written above, we have come up with many ways to mitigate the impact our pool will have on the chaparrel. This way, we will be doing the best we can to make up for the chaparral wildlife we had to clear. We believe building a pool on our chaparrel is the best option.