Blue-Green Cities

On Thursday 15h November, Year 1 students were treated to a pre-prep tailored mini-lecture by Reading University’s Professor Hannah Cloke, who specialises in flood defence systems.

Hannah began by eliciting what the children knew about rivers in our local area and was impressed when they promptly named the Thames and Kennet. A discussion ensued about land use near rivers and the problems that can arise when rivers burst their banks following periods of heavy rain. The children looked at several colour photographs depicting flooded scenes across the world and discussed the impact on human life and devastating effect on landscapes.

The boys took part in a practical experiment to compare the effects of heavy rain in urban and rural environments. Armed with pipets, the boys began to release water droplets on wooden blocks (representing the concrete surfaces often found in a city), and sponges (the green spaces found in our countryside). The children quickly came to appreciate that flooding is more likely to occur in cities as rainwater cannot be absorbed by concrete. Hannah explained the concept of ‘blue-green cities’, whereby town planners try to ensure there are as many green spaces as possible, whilst considering the course of natural waterways.

Each child drew a sketch of the building they had recently made for our Pre Prep Collaborative City, ‘Reliance’, whilst Hannah and her special helper, Chris, set up a river channel down the side of the classroom. Each child then had to decide where they would place their structure if the only space available was near a river. After much deliberation, and attempts to place their buildings in the courtyard adjoining our classroom, the boys decided that their structures would be built on stilts. They demonstrated this by standing on chairs whilst holding their sketches well above their heads.

In order to apply and demonstrate their understanding of Hannah’s workshop, each child was given a piece of A3 white paper and a long blue ribbon. Their task; to design a city with a river running through it. Hannah was most impressed by their completed works which featured (amongst other things) sky scrapers on stilts and geothermal water filtering systems!

Many thanks to Hannah for giving up her time to prepare and deliver an exciting, practical and highly informative lecture.

Tara Blackburn
Year 1 Teacher