Philly educator helps students map the land, water, and sociopolitical systems
Posted by Green Philly on December 16, 2025
As an urban agriculture, food, and natural resources teacher at The U School in North Philadelphia, Anna Herman asks her students to research soil health and study the connection between the land, water, and the sociopolitical systems that contribute to their lives and diets.
“It’s about understanding the cycles of nature. It’s about understanding how to have access to more fresh, healthy food,” Herman said. “We’re trying to give kids exposure to things and then tangible career pathways within those things, so that there’s a sustainability throughline within that work.”
This year, Herman was selected to create a new curriculum unit through Yale University’s National Initiative program, which pairs public school educators with Yale faculty to “strengthen teachers’ content knowledge,” according to the program description.
Herman’s unit is called “Mapping the Future.” It combines analog and digital resources — think clay and paper as well as drones and Geographic Information Systems software — to map everything from Philadelphia’s topography to the indigenous histories of the Lenape people as they navigated displacement and environmental changes.
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