The Learning Barge: A Floating Classroom for Environmental Stewardship
The Learning Barge is a unique concept, a mobile environmental education center designed to connect communities with their local waterways and promote ecological awareness. These innovative platforms, exemplified by projects like the Elizabeth River Project's Learning Barge in Virginia and the Mississippi River Institute's floating classroom, offer hands-on learning experiences and inspire environmental stewardship.
Origins and Concept
The idea of the Learning Barge, exemplified by the Elizabeth River Project, was conceived by Crisman+Petrus Architects in 2005 as a crucial component of the Money Point Sustainable Revitalization Plan. Crisman, in conjunction with the Elizabeth River Project, an environmental nonprofit focused on improving the conditions of the river, plus community partners and professionals and U.Va. students, developed the idea of a self-sustaining, buoyant Learning Barge to bridge the current disconnect between the Elizabeth River, one of the most contaminated rivers in the United States, and community members in Norfolk and surrounding counties, who are often isolated from the river because much of its shoreline is controlled by industrial and military interests. The intention was to create a moveable platform where citizens could learn about the processes of river sediment remediation, tidal wetland restoration, and the sustaining co-existence of human and ecological systems at Money Point and other Elizabeth River restoration sites. The project gained momentum in January 2006 when Phoebe Crisman brought it to the University of Virginia School of Architecture, leading a four-year research, design, and fabrication effort involving multi-disciplinary teams of UVA students and faculty.
The Learning Barge isn't just about environmental education; it's also about community engagement. By mooring in different locations, the barge brings educational opportunities directly to the communities it serves. It aims to engage the civic realm by involving local residents in the river's regeneration. It acknowledges the importance of decentralized remediation projects in favor of multiple, smaller projects that proceed over time as funding becomes available. The sitelessness of the barge is a great asset within this decentralized context. The Barge serves as a place for staging operations, connecting disparate sites along the river.
Design and Sustainability
The Learning Barge embodies sustainable design principles, functioning as an off-the-grid classroom and field station. It is powered solely by site-based solar and wind energy systems. It collects its own rainwater, composts waste and filters its waste water through an on board wetland. The Elizabeth River Learning Barge is a demonstration tool for sustainable technologies: energy is harvested from eight photovoltaic panels and two wind turbines, radiant heat in the winter is provided by a solar thermal system using evacuated tubes, and water is collected from the roof and filtered for hand washing.
The barge also incorporates research and sustainable design principles to promote environmental education. The design also includes revealing the barge's energy systems and making their operation transparent. The renewable energy and water systems publicly exhibit a high quality of life while demonstrating energy independence with a substantial reduction in global pollution. Because the barge is designed to promote ecological conservation and restoration, it operates on renewable energy, uses captured rain water for hand washing, and heats its enclosure with solar hot water. The vessel was constructed with selective material choices and also contains an active biofiltration system in the form of an onboard wetland.
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The integrated educational component for K-12 schoolchildren offers opportunities to experience the river firsthand and engage in hands-on exploration and learning. The curriculum is flexible and responsive to the qualities of specific sites. The spaces on the barge are informed by a developing vision of how they would be used. The design utilizes "passive" climate control for comfort within a vast range of unpredictable environmental conditions.
The barge's physical design also contributes to its educational mission. Open to the landscape, the barge aims to be self-sufficient. The wall to the left is thickened from the steel armature running along one side of the barge. The group of students are shown gathering on the Story-Telling Stairs. This perspective shows student activity on the larger observation deck. The longitudinal sections are taken through the ramp leading to the lower deck (top image) and through the classroom space (lower image). The transverse section is cut through the barge's on-board river filtration system. Diagrams show the barge's water, energy, and heating systems.
Educational Impact and Community Engagement
The Learning Barge provides interactive K-12 and adult education about how river ecology and human activities are inextricably linked. Unlike environmental education centers located in pristine “nature,” the Barge traverses an important urban river and major world port. The moveable Learning Barge will stop at ongoing restoration sites on the Elizabeth River for a few months at a time, with each site demonstrating particular conditions and lessons about the River.
The Elizabeth River Project, in collaboration with several public partners, offers daily educational programs for K-12 school children and the public. Now visitors to the Learning Barge see, firsthand and in an interactive way, what the ordinarily abstract terms "remediation" and "natural processes" mean.
The Education Honor Awards program, created in 1988, recognizes collegiate faculty achievements and contributions to education and to the discipline of architecture. In conjunction with the Elizabeth River Project, an environmental nonprofit focused on improving the conditions of the river, plus community partners and professionals and U.Va. students, Crisman developed the idea of a self-sustaining, buoyant Learning Barge to bridge the current disconnect between the Elizabeth River, one of the most contaminated rivers in the United States, and community members in Norfolk and surrounding counties, who are often isolated from the river because much of its shoreline is controlled by industrial and military interests. "This has been an amazing opportunity for students to connect with a range of people with whom they might never have interacted," said Crisman.
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The Learning Barge has the potential to connect the community with the river's landscape. The river offers both a site and a purpose. The Learning Barge could leave several impressions in the river's ecological landscape.
The Elizabeth River shipping community has rallied around the Learning Barge. Local shipyards volunteer to take on the expense of hauling out, cleaning and repainting of the hull, and the pushboat community competes to move the barge from mooring to mooring or when a hurricane threatens. Knowing that their children are learning on the Barge about restoring a clean and healthy River ecosystem, the source of their livelihoods, local companies and workers have taken the Barge on as their River mascot.
Examples of Learning Barge Initiatives
Elizabeth River Project's Learning Barge
The Elizabeth River Project's Learning Barge serves as a mobile, 32'x120' environmental field station. Traveling to remediation and restoration sites along the industrialized Elizabeth River, the Barge and its curriculum is building ecological literacy among the K-16 and adult populations of Hampton Roads. The Learning Barge has completed eight seasons of successful educational programs reaching over 70,000 students.
The Learning Barge itself was designed as a didactic device reliant on natural systems - sun, wind, water, earth and biology - and built using primarily recycled materials. The Barge tells the story of the inextricable link between water and land, as well as the crucial balance between industrialized human activity and the environment on the Elizabeth River. Rainwater is collected and filtered for non-potable use, and greywater is filtered in the onboard constructed wetland habitat. River water is manually pumped into native saltwater plant basins for testing and cleaning. Other sustainable building concepts include composting waste disposal and the use of recycled materials and sustainably harvested local hardwood.
The Learning Barge is a unique, completely sustainable vessel that serves as a classroom for environmental education and a working platform for the remediation efforts of the Elizabeth River Project.
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Mississippi River Institute's Floating Classroom Barge
The Mississippi River Institute connects young adults and school-aged kids to the river’s ecological and economic importance through its floating classroom barge and hands-on workshops. The program immerses students in the working river, guided by industry professionals who share their own stories, skills, and career paths.
The Mississippi River Institute offers a space to learn about the river from professionals in the maritime industry, and helps inspire students to look outside the confines of a classroom to see what’s taking place on the river in real time. The Mississippi River Institute promotes numerous careers in the trades and barge industries, as that is what the program is truly inspired by: everything from towboat captains, deckhands, engineers, and, yes, even the cooks who live and travel on the towboats! In addition to the trades, the program also promotes careers in conservation, hospitality, tourism, and even city, state, and federal agencies.
Students get to attend a full-day workshop, typically five hours long, along with 15-30 of their peers. Students arrive and are welcomed onto the floating classroom barge. Guest speakers from the industry are recruited for the workshop, where they highlight aspects from their personal and professional lives, showcasing the skills, education, experience, and dedication they may need or should consider pursuing to get on the right track for the right career. Guest speakers engage students through hands-on activities and demonstrations, showcasing the interesting aspects of their roles. During lunch, students watch a video produced by Living Lands & Waters, narrated by Mike Rowe, featuring over 26 different river-related careers.
The floating classroom barge provides a unique learning environment. Students have the opportunity to sit in a classroom with the bustling current of the river right outside the big, open doors. We’re able to take in a vast view of the river by incorporating activities on the upper or lower deck, whether it’s throwing lines around kevel or collecting water samples from over the side of the barge. It’s a classroom that brings the topics to life and engages students in hands-on activities.
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