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Unit Plan
National Library of Medicine

Your Environment, Your Health: Runoff, Impervious Surfaces, and Smart Development

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Can a sidewalk increase the amount of pollution in local streams? Scholars learn the answer to this question though research and experimentation in the fifth unit in the six-part series. Pupils study runoff, impervious surfaces, and the...
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Lesson Plan
2
2
Smithsonian Institution

Borders and Community: Early 20th Century Chicago Neighborhoods and Ethnic Enclaves

For Teachers 8th - 11th Standards
Chicago is one city, four neighborhoods, and countless nationalities. The lesson explores the ethnic division of Chicago in the early twentieth century. Academics read primary sources, analyze maps, and tour an online exhibit to...
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Unit Plan
Polk Bros Foundation

Chicago: Choices and Changes

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Chicago, a city that is ever changing. A thought-provoking lesson, geared toward third-grade social studies, explains how the city of Chicago has changed over time. It discusses important leaders to the founding of the city, like Daniel...
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Lesson Plan
Pace University

Urban Communities

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd Standards
Urban communities are the focus of a series of lessons created to meet specific needs using differentiated instruction. A pre-assessment designates scholars into three groups based on their ability level. Small groups take part in...
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AP Test Prep
College Board

2015 AP® Environmental Science Free-Response Questions

For Students 10th - 12th Standards
Less than eight percent of AP Environmental Science test takers earn the highest score possible. Help scholars improve their scores by using actual test questions on water quality and urban planning before reading sample responses that...
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AP Test Prep
College Board

2005 AP® Human Geography Free-Response Questions

For Students 10th - 12th Standards
Why do people leave their home countries and come to the United States? How has nationalism affected European nations politically and socially? The answers are complicated. Pupils explore the intricate dynamics using structured questions...
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AP Test Prep
College Board

2017 AP® Human Geography Free-Response Questions

For Students 10th - 12th Standards
How have urban planners tried to attract people to cities? What can be done about booming birth rates in some parts of the world? How does a country's political structure affect the well being of its people? Scholars investigate these...
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Lesson Plan
1
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School Improvement in Maryland

Smart Growth

For Teachers 9th - 12th
New roads, new businesses, new developments, new mass transit systems. All growth has both positive and negative effects on communities. Government classes investigate the principles of Maryland's 1997 Smart Growth program and the...
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Unit Plan
American Institute of Architects

Architecture: It's Elementary!—Fifth Grade

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Young citizens construct an understanding of urban planning in this cross-curricular unit. Covering every aspect of city development from the political, economic, and social influences to sustainable building practices, this 10-lesson...
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Lesson Plan
Skyscraper Museum

Changes in a City Over Time

For Teachers 2nd - 6th Standards
Investigate the growth and development of New York City with the final lesson in this four-part series on skyscrapers. Learners first explore the concept of urban growth by looking closely at a series of three paintings made of Wall...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Kid City, USA

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
What a model community would look like? Get your kids talking with an activity that allows them to create their own town. After printing out a "fold out village," groups of students use a variety of resources to help them build an actual...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Design for Social Justice

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students create a solution to a social justice problem within their community. In this urban planning lesson, students read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. Students then complete a research...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Urban Explosion

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students investigate the uncontrolled development of the world's major cities. They define key vocabulary terms, view and discuss video excerpts, and complete a project that involves drawing a "perfect city," developing a plan to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Volcanoes and Urban Planning

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze satellite image data of Volcan Villarica. In this earth science lesson, students identify dangerous areas surrounding the volcano. They propose a new safe location for the town.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Applied Science- Built environment Lab (Trains)

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Learners examine transportation. In this train design lesson, students study how trains work and how to efficiently design a track by working with an electric train set. As a class they compare various types of trains and work...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Simulation: Urban Planning for An Ancient Mayan City

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students participate in the simulation of planning an ancient Mayan city. In this urban planning lesson, students role play as citizens of an Mayan city. They act out their roles in a classroom that has been rearranged to simulate the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mapping My Community

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders are introduced to GPS technology. They complete fieldwork as they visit a specific area of their community to identify and map types of land use in the surveyed area. They use the collected data to create a digital map.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Chicago's Amazing Growth

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Young scholars, in groups, collaboratively explore the rapid growth of Chicago (from 350 to 300,000 in less than 40 years), and how the city changed to accommodate such rapid growth.
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Online Course
Cosmo Learning

Cosmo Learning: Roman Architecture

For Students 9th - 10th
A series of 24 introductory videos on Roman architecture and its history, presented by Professor Diana E. E. Kleiner of Yale University.
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Handout
US Department of Labor

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Urban and Regional Planners

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource provides a complete description of the career of urban planner. It includes the nature of the work, training and education, employment outlook and wages.
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Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Ellen Dunham Jones: Retrofitting Suburbia

For Students 9th - 10th
Ellen Dunham-Jones takes a look at how shopping has evolved over the past few decades and discusses what's to come of dying malls, dead "big box" stores, and empty parking lots. [19:24]
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Engineers Speak for the Trees

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students begin by reading Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" as an example of how overdevelopment can cause long-lasting environmental destruction. Students discuss how to balance the needs of the environment with the needs of human industry....
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Traffic Lights

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students learn about traffic lights and their importance in maintaining public safety and order. Using a Parallax Basic Stamp 2 microcontroller, students work in teams on the engineering challenge to build a traffic light with a specific...
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Interactive
Burke Museum

Burke Museum: Waterlines: Discover & Explore Seattle's Past Landscapes

For Students 9th - 10th
Seattle is one of the most dramatically engineered cities in the USA. This rich interactive website enables people to see how Seattle's various landscapes have changed over time. The site starts out with an interactive map of the Puget...