Writing and sketching reflections on a city’s development.

Student Journal

Guide - Platonic Solids

Student Map

In this lesson, students will begin to learn about some of the complexities of urban planning including housing, transportation, energy consumption and production, readiness for natural hazards, and sustainable development concepts. Students will prototype a solar panel for a sustainable city, integrating this design into their own city sketches. In doing so, students will create their own unique urban layout. Upon completion, students will next have the opportunity to expand their city designs while addressing the Sustainable Development Goals.

#### Lesson Structure

When students go through this lesson in each section the objectives they will learn are:

* **Warm-up** – Recognize that a city is a large community made up of many smaller communities, where many people live and work together.  
* **Imagine** – Explain needs and challenges of people living in a city as well as potential problems or design constraints in particular cities. 
* **Create** –  Construct models of a solar panel array for the city’s sustainable infrastructure. 
* **Build** – Build a unified city layout planning out the energy, transportation, green spaces, and housing for the community to live.
* **Reflect** – Reflect on the challenges that urban planners face in creating sustainable cities through student designs.
* **Challenges** – Extend learning through opportunities to expand city design with focus on sustainability and innovation. 

#### After this lesson students will be able to:

* Discuss and explore different community needs, including ways to connect individual neighborhoods into a unified city.
* Planning with a map incorporating renewable energy measures to the city's sustainable development. 
* Design a city around different scenarios such as geographic location, population growth, conservation, preservation, or prevention against natural hazards.
* Practice communication skills through a collaborative large-scale project.
* Reproduce different architectural features in a variety of scales.

Teacher Notes

Overview and Objectives

Materials

Facilitation and Collaboration Work

#### Before Starting (28 min)

These are suggestions to prepare on your own before starting this lesson with your students.

* Build a prism building and solar panel from the [Create](#create) and [Build](#build) sections of this lesson. (10 min)
* Review the [Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)](https://sdgs.un.org/goals) blueprint based on global needs to create a more sustainable world by 2030 before starting the lesson. (8 minutes)

  * [SDG 7](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal7)  – Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
  * [SDG 11](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11)  – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
  * [SDG 15](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal15) – Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
* *Optional*: Share, download and print the **Pre lesson - Platonic Solids** asset and give to your students. (5 minutes)
* *Optional*: Distribute or print ahead the **Urban Planning - Student Map** asset for guiding students in their planning for use during [Create](#create) and [Build](#build) sections of this lesson. (5 minutes)

#### Vocabulary 

This is the list of vocabulary terms used throughout the lesson. They will be in **bold** and the definition listed throughout the different sections. On the **Urban Planning - Student Journal** asset there is also a list of definitions. Students can always revisit the vocabulary definitions with media and questions in the lesson.

* **Community** (noun) –  Group of people who are brought together by a common interest, goal, or geographical location.
* **Economy** (noun) – The sum of the systems responsible for the production of goods and services to meet people's needs and wants.  
* **Urban** (adjective) – Relating or having to do with cities.
* **Urbanization** (noun)  – The process by which rural areas are developed into cities, and the movement of people from rural areas into urban ones.
* **Population** (noun)  – The total number of people living in an area.
* **Swale** (noun)  – Sunken area such as a ditch which collects and absorbs water.
* **Collective** (adjective or noun)  – Relating to the needs of a whole group of people, or an entity which exists to serve a whole population.
* **Infrastructure** (noun) – Physical structures that shape human society such as roads, bridges, houses, and other buildings.
* **Anaerobic Digestion** (noun)  – A process to break down food waste, farm waste, and sewage without oxygen. This process harnesses energy from these substances to create heat and electricity.
* **Floodplain** (noun)  – The land surrounding a river which reaches from its banks to the edge of a valley.
* **Green Roof** (noun)  – Also known as an eco-roof, is a living roof where vegetation or plant life has been planted in soil on top of a building.
* **Trade** (noun)  – The action of buying and selling goods and services for money or money’s value.
* **Commerce** (noun)  – Interactions that involve the buying and selling of goods and services along with the activities to complete the exchange.

Preparation

### Facilitation and Collaboration Work

Students can read and answer questions independently or as a group.

#### Communities 

* What is a **community**? At its most basic level, communities are groups of people who are brought together by a common interest, goal, or geographical location.  Schools are a quintessential example of communities. Teachers, staff, and students, come together with the common goal of learning and helping each other to learn.
* What elements combine to form a **community**? They must be composed of three things: people, place (or space), and purpose. Although we typically think of a place as somewhere physically geographic, it can also reference an online space. Throughout history, people formed communities to survive. For example, people in communities helped each other with the work of harvesting food, protection from enemies, and building shelter.
* How are communities and cities related? Over time, some communities grew bigger and bigger until they formed cities. The first cities were thought to be founded as centers for agriculture and food in Mesopotamia around 7500 BC. The organization of a city allowed people to store food for longer periods of time, and grow more prosperous than if they depended on what could be grown season to season. Cities also developed for **trade** and **commerce**, centers of government and religion, while others were founded for defensive purposes.

**Urbanization** benefits people because there are more chances for employment in a city than in rural areas due to the sheer number of people living in a city. Employment opportunities range from the service industry to financial, engineering, medical, and other high-paying occupations. As more people come to a city, it creates more jobs and more opportunities for other people. By pooling resources people can work toward shared goals because working together can accomplish much more.

Some cities are built around a major river system for the transport of goods from shipping. In addition, people could travel to other places on the river and encourage trade to strengthen a business. A city square or center is a common gathering space for purchasing goods.

#### **Critical Roles for Urban Planning**

When it comes to a city’s development there are key roles to build the community starting with these:

* Planner – makes a plan with the activities required to achieve the desired goal.
* Designer/Architect – creator of a look and/or function of something before it is made.
* Engineer – builds, runs, and maintains machines, engines, and structures.

Arts and Culture: Cities are a thriving place for the creation of arts and the development of culture. Rather than being the sole work of a single talented or genius individual, these arts form and culminate as a vibrant expression of a diverse population living and interacting together. The types of art may be lasting and on a grand scale or they may be smaller acts of artistic voice, advocacy, and resistance. As artists flow into a city, fellow artists follow, creating communities where creative, cutting-edge, open-minded, and experimental ideas and techniques are welcomed and cultivated.  

Economy: Cities are vital hubs in developing new jobs and markets, and their large scale of ongoing human interaction encourages the formation of innovative economic ventures, opportunities, and growth. These urban developments often offer the possibility of a better job and an improved quality of life. City building includes far more than just a consideration of its buildings and roadways. Urban planning focuses on economic considerations and how people must often develop novel skills and behaviors, and even work together to alter the existing culture in order to generate industries, services, and capital.

A city planner could make a plan with the necessary steps required to build a public park, and consider all the stakeholders and how people would be affected. They would hire an architect to design the park before it is made. An engineer would build, run, and maintain the structures.

Warm-up

#### Infrastructure

The basic system for a city uses infrastructure. Examples of systems for infrastructure include transportation, housing, public safety, health services, communication networks, water sanitation systems, and electric power grid systems.

#### Transportation

There are three main types of transportation in urban areas. **Collective** or public transportation, individual transportation, and **freight** transportation. Each system has a different purpose.  **Collective transportation** moves a large number of people at regular intervals such as on a bus or subway schedule  Examples of individual transportation include bicycles, personal cars, taxi services, and pedestrian walking. **Freight** transportation is the movement of goods from one place to another. In urban areas, this may occur with large trucks or delivery vans. The flow of people and goods across and within urban locations is the primary focus of all three types of transportation. 

As cities increase in size and intricacy, the potential for challenges and disruptions to this flow of people and goods grows within these urban developments.

* *Parking and Traffic*: Motor vehicle congestion in cities is often expected, but it becomes more pronounced and widespread as city population totals surge over 1 million residents. Even with the parking allocations available, motor vehicles parking along streets lessens the number of lanes available for circulating through the city. These challenges create major urban planning concerns when coupled with inefficient traffic signals and stops. 
* *Increased Commute Times*: As housing outside of the city becomes more affordable, many commuters are willing to drive longer to their job in the city. This commuting trend creates further inner-city traffic. 
* *Shortcomings of Public Transport*: Public transport systems struggle with crowded, uncomfortable, and high-demand times of the day. This shared system of transportation may be under-used at various times or in different areas of the city. Costs to maintain this system and lack of funding present difficulties. 
* *Pedestrians and Cyclists*: Cities are learning the importance of providing paths, storage, and infrastructure for city pedestrians and bicycle riders. One challenge for city builders is to consider how to create these designs with existing parking and roadways considering safety. 
* *Further challenges*: Roadway congestion in the cities has led to issues with noise levels, loss of public space, and air pollution. The resulting impact on human physical and social health along with harm to the environment has led to growing efforts to develop cars that run on alternative, cleaner fuels.

Many people depend on **freight** transportation to deliver groceries and other goods to stores and homes. **Freight** transportation is vital to the economy, but large trucks can wear down roads and highways as well as cause more congestion.

Benefits to **collective** transportation include being able to move large amounts of people at a low cost to passengers and less congestion in cities. A drawback is that **collective** transportation may be expensive to maintain and provide at a low cost during non-peak hours. Individual transportation can be beneficial to the environment if people are walking or biking, but could be harmful if many individuals are driving personal cars.

#### Housing

* City inhabitants require housing that is affordable and safe. They need proper access to public transportation, health care, green areas, and public spaces. Safe housing must also include clean and properly maintained waste management systems. Billions of people around the world are packed into densely populated, low income, urban residential areas which may lack these basic needs.
* Cities must consider how to rebuild and restructure unsuitable housing and keep housing affordable. City planners also have a responsibility to involve local people in the decision-making process, empowering residents to guide the direction of housing and community development.

#### Earth and Human Activity 

As cities grow the risks of natural distances devastating a densely populated city area. According to the United Nations, there are a total of 1,146 cities with populations over 500,000. Nearly 60% of these cities are at risk for at least one type of six natural disasters: flooding, cyclones or hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions or droughts. This means that nearly 1.4 billion people are at risk of suffering from a natural disaster.

#### Sponge Cities

In order to adapt to climate change, and flooding, many cities across the globe such as Berlin, Germany, and Wuhan, China is creating more green spaces, wetlands, and restoring floodplains. These “sponge” methods are surprising ways that cities can mitigate the damages from flooding and prevent future flooding.  Floods occur in cities when there is excess water from storms that overwhelm the drainage systems, when a nearby river floods, or when hurricanes and cyclones hit a region. Sponge city initiatives focus on absorbing and reusing the water rather than diverting it away from the city. Cities also may remove concrete and create natural **swales** to capture rainwater. Or, they add soil and plants to roofs to create what is known as a **green roof**. While concrete acts as a barrier to water and causes flooding, natural surfaces of soil and plants actually absorb the water. Engineers harness the captured water to cool the city as a natural air conditioner. Cities also restore floodplains and recreate artificial floodways so that when hurricanes hit, the water can be diverted into the floodplain.

City planners would need to conduct an analysis of their city and make a comprehensive list of every area and building that could be potentially affected by natural hazards such as a hurricane, tornados, or tsunami. They would then need to plan out what each zone would need to do to lessen the risk each situation. City planners would need to prioritize the areas that would be most affected and create a budget for upgrading these zones. They should also make emergency evacuation plans that clearly explain what people should do in a flood and make sure those are translated into all languages and distributed in a variety of manners including via social media.

#### Green Spaces and Parks

Not only do green spaces provide a natural surface to absorb water, but green spaces help urban dwellers experience the benefits of nature right in their own communities and neighborhoods. Green spaces offer numerous health benefits to city residents. These spaces can be calming and peaceful areas of respite and relaxation. Several studies have found these outdoor areas, in turn, improve mental health and lessens stress. Physical health is also enhanced as people find a place to walk and be active. Further, water evaporates from the plants in green spaces and cools the surrounding areas. This can help people in cities to avoid overheating. Additional studies have found that green spaces help lessen premature mortality and the harmful effects of air pollution in cities.

#### Energy Production and Consumption

Engineers have a two fold-problem, dealing with the waste that cities produce and at the same time producing enough electricity to sustain millions of lives. One solution which solves both problems is **anaerobic digestion**, a process breaking down waste and releases methane gas at the same time. This gas can be harnessed to create both electricity and heat through the transfer of energy. Solar panels are also another cost-effective way to produce electricity. Energy from the sun is free and does not use water to convert into electricity. As solar companies create solar panels with more cost-effective designs, city designers can rely on this free energy to create electricity, and reduce human dependence on fossil fuels.

Newer solar panel prototypes are less expensive and cities can purchase these at a lower cost than previously. As engineers continue to innovate solar panels, selling at a lower cost in exchange for a longer commitment. Engineers could work with cities and citizens to come up with the best ways to fully integrate solar energy into all parts of the city. As solar companies create solar panels with more cost-effective designs, city designers can rely on this free energy to create electricity, and reduce human dependence on coal, natural gas, and petroleum.

Imagine

#### Facilitation and Collaboration Work

Urban Planning is a large group and collaborative theme meaning you can have students work on the instructions together in large groups of 3-5. Sharing ideas amongst peers and helping each other is encouraged during this process.

Build rectangles to hold the solar panel

Build triangles and attach making 3 solar panel stands

Make the solar panel base

Cut and draw paper solar panels

Tape paper on solar panel base to complete

Create

#### Facilitation and Collaboration Work

Urban Planning is a large group and collaborative theme meaning you can have students work on the instructions together in large groups of 3-5. Sharing ideas amongst peers and helping each other is encouraged during this process.

Use the **Map** asset for students to plan the layout of their city.

Build 2 small rectangular prisms

Build 2 medium-sized rectangular prisms

Construct a small rectangular prism

Construct a tall rectangular prism

Build a flat rectangular prism

Assemble a long triangular prism

Build a house connecting the triangular and flat rectangular prisms together

Cut a paper sun and green roofs then tape roofs to top of buildings

Make flowers

Arrange the buildings and solar panels to make the city

Build

#### Facilitation and Collaborative Work

For this section of the lesson the following questions below can be discussed all together as a class or within each group. You can use the **Urban Planning - Student Journal** asset as a helpful resource to capture ideas and process on the computer or printed ahead of time and distributed.

Reflect

Challenges

References and Extra Resources

STEAM Classroom

United States

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

SDGs

Goal 3

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Goal 9

Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.*

NGSS

3-ESS3-1

Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

4-ESS3-1

Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.*

4-ESS3-2

Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

5-ESS3-1

Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.*

MS-ESS3-3

Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

3-5-ETS1-1

Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

3-5-ETS1-2

Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

3-5-ETS1-3

Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.

MS-ETS1-1

Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

MS-ETS1-2

Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.

Common Core ELA

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3

Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a .

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.4

Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.7

Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.3

Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a .

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.4

Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.7

Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.3

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.4

Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.7

Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.3

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.4

Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.8.3

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.