Session #1 | Educating & Empowering
Introduction: Nell Ziehl | Chief, Office of Planning, Education, and Outreach, Maryland Historical Trust
Showcase Speaker: Marcus Moench | Founder, Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET) International
Case Study: Environmental Histories and the Future of Heritage: Looking to the Past in Climate Change Management
Presentation: Living in Our Shared World
Showcase Speaker: Reimagining the Mosaic: History and Continuity in Changing Times
Drawing on his experience as the founder of an organization working in the US and Asia on climate change and urban resilience, Dr. Marcus Moench will talk on the challenges facing historical areas as they encounter fundamental climate and other change processes. The presentation will explore the processes and challenges communities must address to remain dynamic and change occurs. It will also address the roles art, music, and culture can play along with science and planning in maintaining the mosaic of community and the connection with history.
Case Study: Environmental Histories and the Future of Heritage: Looking to the Past in Climate Change Management
In national parks like East Potomac Park, Harper Ferry, and the C&O Canal “historic flooding” can refer to two things: a natural disaster in history or a natural disaster that makes history. Since climate change projections for sea level rise, tidal flooding, and storm surge lead us to expect more events like this in the future, the past can and should inform our planning. As the National Park Service considers the vulnerability of its historic structures and landscapes, archaeological sites and collections. and waterfront communities , we can use environmental histories to identify examples of historical resilience, adaptation, and loss that can help shape site management in locally meaningful ways.
- Emily Button Kambic | Cultural Resources Public Outreach Coordinator, Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow, National Park Service
- Kathryn G. Smith | National Historic Landmarks Program Coordinator, National Park Service
Presentation: Living in Our Shared World
Climate change and sea level rise are realities that we must all face. The question is how as educators do we bring students into the discussion of what is going to happen to the world they live in as the climate and habitat changes in their own backyard. The Watermen’s Museum has developed an education program entitled Living in Our Shared World that is being field tested at multiple education levels within the public and private school systems. The aim of the program is to make the topic relevant to the students’ lives and engage their interest by using multidisciplinary educational techniques to open the discussion, then allow them to explore problems and solutions, and in turn become the teacher by presenting their own projects to other students. How did the field tests go? What did we learn? We hope to develop the program for broad use by using the feedback from those who will have to be adapting to our new shared world, the students.
- Michael Steen | Director of Education, Watermen’s Museum