The project, “DragonFly”, began as an idea for a platform built
on existing infrastructure, creating interventions along the
Schuylkill River walking trail for experiential learning and creative
thinking. Using a combination of digital media and physical
interventions, “DragonFly” can engage with the citizens of
Philadelphia in their own backyard and inspire them to seek adventure
by discovering more about their own city’s natural wonders. These
ideas work together to create new memories in a familiar area for
many. As Drexel University continues to expand into West Philadelphia
and is actively involved with development of other public spaces
around campus, we see this as a natural extension to serve the
community and engage with local residents in new ways. “DragonFly”
will leverage the Academy’s immense natural history collections and
local research efforts as well as Drexel’s commitment to its
community and expertise in experiential learning to create this new
platform. We want people to walk away with appreciation of the area
so they will want to preserve it, but also bring it back home with
them and begin their own urban ecology experiments.
The panel presentation will cover our progress to date, including
preliminary reports with faculty and administration and a synthesis
of work done by students in ENVS 280 (fall 2014), a community based
learning course developed by myself for this project. It will also
discuss insights from student work in Iceland (fall 2015) on how to
apply this project to other cities and promote global sustainability
at a regional scale.
