by Jeff Kelly Lowenstein • The 28 students in Nina Hike-Teague’s
environmental sciences class at Curie Metropolitan High School
on Chicago’s Southwest Side learned that the road to
environmental decision making is paved with sponges. They
carefully measured water into beakers, then poured the liquid
onto yellow sponges placed inside silver aluminum pie tins. The
sponges swelled and expanded until the water flowed onto the
containers. “Now squeeze the sponge and measure how much water
comes out,” Hike-Teague, a 10-year teaching veteran, said as she
circulated the room. “That amount will be the available water
for crops.” This simulation of water retention by soil was an
important step in teaching students how the properties of soil
determine the efficiency of water use on a farm. Using
Northwestern associate professor Daniel Edelson’s (GMcC93)
environmental sciences curriculum, the students employed
simulation software to try to balance a farm’s water budget and
visualization tools to examine California’s netw