Ecological Design Challenge: Spring Lake

• In this activity, students will design a plan to build a vegetated embankment to stabilize the shoreline and reduce flood damage in Spring Lake, New Jersey.
• The plans must include criteria for successful completion and ideas for how the site will be monitored. 
• This activity is a part of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection's educational program, Building Ecological Solutions for Coastal Community Hazards. 

Positives

• This activity gives students a chance to use design thinking skills to solve 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 provide 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 three-dimensional models, posters, slideshows, or diagrams to explain their plans.
• Biology classes could research native plants that have deep enough root systems to keep the vegetated embankment from eroding that can also withstand periodic flooding.
• Science students could discuss the following questions:
  • Is it better to use one type of plant on the embankment or a variety of plants?
  • Should the embankment be planted with full-grown plants or is it better to use seedlings?
  • Are any of the plants susceptible to being eaten by animals or succumbing to disease?
• Other resources on this topic include this TED-Ed video on the dangers of invasive species and this game where students build a town while preserving the health of a lake.