Green Run Collegiate (GRC) International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program Visual Art students have partnered with Penn State University in learning and leading in the African Diaspora Water Crisis Curriculum project.
This project aims to develop and implement an arts-based high school curriculum and instructional resources in response to the global water crisis in the African Diaspora.
According to water.org, 345 million people in Africa and 32 million in Latin America and the Caribbean lack adequate access to potable water. GRC Visual Arts students traveled to Penn State University to work with Dr. Stephen Carpenter, art education professor, to study the global water crisis and create ceramic water filters.
The students were introduced to Carpenter last year when he traveled to GRC and transformed the art room into a workroom to produce small water filters and teach art and design students about the global water crisis in our country and other areas around the world.
This September, 24 IB Diploma Program Visual Art students traveled to Penn State for three days to work with Dr. Carpenter and his art education students in learning more about the crisis and understanding their role in creating change. Students also participated in classes at Penn State and met the several leaders in the fields of arts and education.
The production, use, and implications of affordable ceramic water filters in Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Honduras will be central to the curriculum. This project is based on the premise of working collaboratively with teachers as participatory action research collaborators. GRC Visual Arts students are now working on extension projects to create awareness and action throughout their school community. Carpenter, along with GRC IB Visual Arts teacher Erika Hitchcock, are currently developing collaborative curriculum and instructional resources.
This project was made possible thanks to the Africana Research Center (ARC) at Penn State, which provided for its financial support. For more information about this collaborative project, visit http://sites.psu.edu/watercrisis/.