Reversing the Flow of the Chicago River: An Engineering Marvel or Environmental Catastrophe?

Matt Buckles

AHTC Summer Fellowship 2009

National Archives and Records Administration, Chicago, IL

Abstract: This lesson will use primary source documents relating to the reversal of the flow of the Chicago River between 1896 and 1900. The main focus of the lesson will use this project to analyze the geographical concept of Human-Environment Interaction. This lesson or the accompanying documents could be used in a middle school or high school American History unit on the Industrial Revolution, as well as a Geography or Geology course.

Essential Understanding:

Using historical maps, the Google Earth technology, and written primary documents, students will apply the concept of Human-Environment Interaction to the US Army Corps of Engineers project of the reversal of the Chicago River and evaluate its effectiveness, as well as design their own project.

Essential Question:

How can we balance human economic and social needs with environmental protection?

Assessment: There are several major and minor assessments built in to this mini-unit. As is defined in the essential understanding, these lessons are designed to use content to gain an in depth understanding and application of Human-Environment Interaction. Students will analyze the positives and negatives of the Chicago River using the primary sources provided each day as well as class discussion and group work. Through the course of the week, the most important ongoing formative assessment that the teacher should use to guide instruction is the ability to analyze the provided primary sources. The final project will apply the concept of Human-Environment Interaction, and students will have to answer the essential question with their own project.

Setting the Purpose: The first day’s lesson starts simple – “what are the functions of rivers?” Then students will think about environmental and human functions and place them within the Graphic Organizer. This will begin to hit the ongoing essential understanding of Human-Environment Interaction and the balance that is required for humans to live on the earth. They should also have some knowledge of the process of Industrialization and the use of natural resources. An important thing to remind students is that for every human convenience, there is some cost to the environment. Their job is to determine what those costs are and if the human benefits are worth the costs to our environment.

Analysis of Local and National Primary Sources: Students will analyze documents on the first day of the lesson. This lesson is designed to help guide students in the process of analyzing documents in a guided process before they get into the more challenging documents on the second day in groups. The documents on the first day are photographs of the Union Stock Yards, a letter written to a Chicago business owner, and Google Earth (serving the purpose of a modern map). The main collection of primary sources for the first two lessons comes from the National Archives and Records Administration in Chicago. These documents were written by the US Army Corps of Engineers at the time of the river reversal project. Thus, they serve both a local significance in Illinois and a national significance. Students will connect these by looking at the federal act and Supreme Court cases relevant to the project on the third day. On the fourth day, they will connect the project to the US Army Corps projects in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina, looking at photographs, news footage, and the mission and vision of the US Army Corps – applying Human-Environment Interaction to a modern case with primary and secondary sources.

Lesson 1: Humans and Rivers; Chicago River Pollution

Lesson 2: The Chicago River Reversal Project

Lesson 3: Problems with Reversing the River

Lesson 4: The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Environment Today: New Orleans

Lesson 5: US Army Corps of Engineers Project (started in second half of Day 4)

· In groups of 4, students will take the role of a US Army Corps of Engineers team. They will have to pick a real or fictional environmental issue and design a project that will address both human needs and environmental concerns.