PWAG and Reservoir Studio Visit New Castle High School

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On Friday November 11, 2016, members of Potters Water Action Group and Reservoir Studio visited New Castle High School  (New Castle, PA) to conduct a water filter presentation and demonstration. Art teacher Raquel Flora and PWAG member/art teacher Cynthia Blackwell coordinated the event.

img_0415The presentation took place in the auditorium supported by slides and a display which included a water filter, ceramic receptacle, books, and a portable water filter press. The water filter production demonstration took place in the art room after the presentation. The art room was filled to capacity. We produced a water filter from scratch with cooperation from students.

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PWAG and Reservoir Studio appreciate the administration, teachers, and students at New Castle High School. We extend special thanks to Ms. Flora for her hard work organizing and coordinating the visit. We are proud to include this wonderful school as a K12 Curriculum Partner in “the war against waterborne disease,” our water filter curriculum project and the African Diaspora Water Crisis Curriculum Project.

A Bit of Attention from The Daily Collegian

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An article about the Global Water Crisis Curriculum Project appeared in the Daily Collegian, the student newspaper at Penn State.

“I want a new understanding to emerge as we go, and for people to realize water is a basic human right,” Carpenter said. “As we work more through collaboration, hopefully the kids will gain an understanding for the water crisis as whole.”

Quotations from graduate assistant Felix Rodriguez and art teacher Erika Hitchcock are included in the article.

To read the full article click here: http://m.collegian.psu.edu/arts_and_entertainment/article_1bffa37e-775f-11e5-8af5-170f40e19d91.html?mode=jqm

Penn State visual arts professor tackles global water crisis

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The Daily Collegian

Shelby Kaplan | For the Collegian | Posted 21 hours ago

Over half a million people in Texas do not have access to paved roads, electricity or clean water — and Visual Arts professor B. Stephen Carpenter II is trying to do something about that.

Carpenter is taking action and doing his part to not only help those in Texas — but those in the African Diaspora as well.

With support and funding from the Africana Research Center , Carpenter was able to start his work and research to begin educating kids in grades K-12 about the Diaspora water crisis.

Carpenter uses his visual arts curriculum to get Penn State students involved as well.

“We didn’t invent the water filters,” Carpenter said. “But I was enamored with what they do — they are simple, and powerful. They take contaminated water and make it potable, while only being made of basically clay and sawdust.”

Carpenter said he set four main goals for this project.

“I want a new understanding to emerge as we go, and for people to realize water is a basic human right,” Carpenter said. “As we work more through collaboration, hopefully the kids will gain an understanding for the water crisis as whole.”

Carpenter is also working with schools that take part in the International Baccalaureate Program.

“These students are gaining credit and discipline, but are also keeping a portfolio and learning to do research, a huge aspect of the project,” Carpenter said.

The fourth goal Carpenter has set he said he feels should be stressed the most is “it is a way to explore the IB structure with socially engaged art practice and education.”

Although he has not traveled to the African Diaspora, Carpenter has been to Laredo, Texas — a community which is suffering its own water crisis.

“The point of the project is affordability, instead of sending water filters all over the world, we are trying to set up centers in the areas of need,” Carpenter said.

Helping with the project locally is graduate student Felix Rodriguez.

“I have been in charge of building, designing and maintaining the website for the project,” Rodriguez said. “Part of my duty includes contacting partners, crafting and editing content on the website and help in identifying potential resources.”

Another person Carpenter has worked with is Erika Hitchcock , an IB Visual Arts Teacher at Green Run Collegiate Charter School in Virginia , whose students visited Penn State and worked with Carpenter for a week this past September.

“Students are motivated to turn ideas into action and many have shown interest in furthering their knowledge about water in other disciplines such as marine biology and chemistry.” Hitchcock said. “Having this first-hand experience has resulted in greater enthusiasm for learning and more ownership and interest to global issues.”

Courtesy of B. Stephen Carpenter

Professor B. Stephen Carpenter is working to educate students on the Diaspora water crisis.

 

Virginia Beach High School Students visit PSU

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Art Education Professor Educates High School Students about Global Water Crisis

Steve Carpenter shows a finished water filter

A group of Virginia Beach high school students visited Penn State University Park in early September to learn how to respond to the global water crisis by making point-of-use ceramic water filters. The visit was part of a curriculum research project led by B. Stephen Carpenter II, professor of art education, professor-in-charge of the Art Education program and director of Reservoir Studio.

The African Diaspora Water Crisis Curriculum Project, funded in part by a grant from Penn State’s Africana Research Center, aims to develop and implement arts-based high school curriculum and instructional resources in response to the global water crisis in the African Diaspora. Approximately 345 million people in Africa and 32 million in Latin America and the Caribbean lack adequate access to potable water, according to water.org. The curriculum and instructional resources will be developed in collaboration with teachers in schools with predominantly African American student populations for use in their International Baccalaureate (IB) programs.

Carpenter coordinated the visit with Erika Hitchcock, an art teacher at Green Run Collegiate High School in Virginia Beach. Carpenter taught Hitchcock when he was a professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. Twenty-two Green Run students came to Penn State for four days, where they attended courses in art education, studio art and art history in addition to learning how to make ceramic water filters.

Carpenter and the students talked extensively about the global water crisis, including affordable technology responses, and how they could take what they learned back home to Virginia.

Students making clay“In our discussions, the students asked pointed, researched questions about the global water crisis, affordable access to water and appropriate technology responses,” said Carpenter. “Their interest is genuine and extends beyond merely responding to a class assignment. They seem committed to contributing positively and productively to the work.”

The students reported that their visit forced them to think about how millions of people around the world still do not have access to clean water.

“This trip was not about going up there just to make pots, but understanding the concept of this plan,” said one student. “I thank Dr. Carpenter for inviting us to Penn State to refresh our minds about this crisis that’s still in the midst of our society. I believe that with hard work, dedication and determination, this project could change the world.”

The curriculum Carpenter and the teachers develop will focus on—among other responses—the production, use and implications of affordable ceramic water filters in Dominican Republic, Haiti and Honduras. A key aim of the project is to enable African American students, their classmates and their teachers to situate themselves critically within the African Diaspora through direct exploration of the global water crisis through artistic, scholarly and socially engaged practices.

Financial support for the student visit was provided by the Penn State School of Visual Arts, Reservoir Studio and the College of Arts and Architecture multicultural and recruitment programs office. Original post: Penn State College of Arts and Architecture