Promoting Progressive Park Possibilities

Activity Overview

Part of our mission at Avenues is to develop students who are aware that their behavior makes a difference in our ecosystem. As adults and educators, we work hard to invest in empathy and connection to the community for our future changemakers. In this activity, students will apply the growing knowledge they have gained in our engineering mini-unit to design and prototype a solution for a real-world problem in their local park. This helps to bring awareness of how we each can impact our communities positively, and instills motivation to engage our global citizenship.

What You Need

• Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty

• A collection of Maker Materials

• Community Solutions Prompts

Steps

1. Read Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty and help your student sequence the steps taken in the story to explore a problem in the community, and the effort made to create a solution.

2. Take a walk to your local park. On the way, help your student notice some things that they think could be made better for their neighborhood. Use the Community Solutions Prompts to think about some possible problems that many communities experience. Talk with your student about ways that those problems could be solved. Use the guiding questions to explore possible solutions.

3. Use the design process template to brainstorm a solution in the park to the identified community problem. For example, if there are many animals in need of care in your community, a possible solution could be to create a veterinary center, or an animal rehabilitation sanctuary in the park. If there are people experiencing food insecurity in the community, perhaps create a resource center or food bank in the park.

4. Once you and your student have decided on a solution, use maker materials to develop a 3D representation of the park and include your design for a solution.

Guiding Questions

• How would you describe the characters in the story? What does Sofia do?

• What was the problem in the story? What steps were taken to try to solve the problem?

• Did the solution work right away or did it take time?

• What problems do you see in our community that we can fix?

• What skills would you need to solve those problems?

• What challenges arise while thinking about possible solutions?

• How have you designed your solution? What elements have you included?

• Did any questions come up while you were thinking about a solution to the problem you found in your community? How did you answer them?

• Did you have to go back and make any changes to your solution?

Extensions

• Consider doing a park clean up, or organizing a food drive for your neighborhood pantry or animal shelter.

• Reach out to some local community organizations (they could be related to the “problem” you have been exploring) and inquire about possible ways to volunteer or make meaningful contributions. Invite others to join you!

• Explore the Engineering Challenge Project Bank, and try out a different challenge each day.