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Cities as Systems Module 1 Lesson 1
LESSON 1: CITIES AS SYSTEMS
OVERVIEW
This lesson is designed to elicit student preconceptions about cities, introduce the idea of
cities as systems, and introduce the driving question for the entire year. The lesson
begins with a brainstorm where the teacher leads a “word splash” about the word city. .
Then in order to encourage students to start thinking of cities as systems, student groups
draw up plans (or construct models) of city neighborhoods and work to fit these
neighborhoods into a city. To understand the time aspect of systems (and cities), these
student groups are provided with imaginary (but possible) events that happen to their
constructed city and asked to construct a past or future for their city. Finally, the lesson
concludes by introducing the driving question for the entire unit – How do we develop
healthy and sustainable cities? This question will be revisited multiple times during the
year as students learn more about urban ecosystems.
SUB-QUESTION
Is a city a system?
WAYS OF KNOWING URBAN ECOLOGY:
Understanding Students will understand that …
• A system is:
-a collection of interrelated parts operating on a number of different
scales, and exhibiting ongoing and dynamic change over time.
• The nature or purpose of the system is different from, and more than, the sum of its unassembled collection of parts.
• A city is a special type of system, an urban
ecosystem.
Talking No specific goals connected with talking
about urban ecology in this lesson.
Doing Students will be able to…
• Construct a two- or three-dimensional model
of a neighborhood.
• Work together to fit these neighborhoods into
a city.
Acting No specific goals connected with acting on
urban ecology in this lesson.
SAFETY GUIDELINES
No specific safety issues are associated with this lesson.
Cities as Systems Module 1 Lesson 1
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PREPARATION
Time
2-3 class periods
Materials
Activity 1.1
• Student notebooks
• Chalk or white board (optional: butcher paper or poster board and markers)
Activity 1.2
• Copy or construction paper
• Markers and pencils
• Rulers
• Scotch Tape
• Optional:
Cardboard
Boxes (cereal, cookie, cracker, etc.)
Scissors
Empty paper towel or toilet paper rolls
Masking Tape
Activity 1.3
• Student models or plans of neighborhoods
• Contingency Cards (at least one for each group, or ideally one past and one future
card for each group)
• Student notebooks
Concluding the Lesson
• Student Notebooks
INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE
Activity 1.1: Brainstorm Word splash – What makes a city?
1. Tell students that their focus in science class this year is going to be around cities.
Write “CITY” in the middle of a piece of butcher paper or poster board. Ask
students to each think of a word that they associate with the word city. Have
students call out the different words they associate with “CITY” and as they call
them out write the words randomly around the paper. Write down all answers
that are appropriate and on task. Below is an example of what the outcome for
the word splash might look like:
Cities as Systems Module 1 Lesson 1
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crime
people
parks
apartments
noise
dirt
flowers
cars lots of stores traffic
jobs
grass
pigeons CITY
trees large
busy exciting
music concerts
Sirens
Stuff to do
buses
School
energy
angry drivers
Fun
trash
2. Ask your students to identify words and phrases that they typically think of as
“science” and words and phrases that they typically think of as “non-science.”
3. Tell them that in urban ecology, we study both the “scientific” and the “social,”
with “scientific” referring to interactions in the environment that are not
exclusively human and the latter referring to interactions that are exclusively
human.
Activity 1.2: Building Neighborhoods and Cities
1. Inform your students that they will be breaking up into groups and building a
model of a neighborhood, and that they will be coming together as a whole to join
their neighborhoods together to make a complete city.
2. Break your students into smaller groups of 3-4 students each. Depending on the
size of your class, your own teaching style, and the needs and preferences of your
students, you may want to break your students into curriculum-long “working
groups.”
Cities as Systems Module 1 Lesson 1
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3. Tell your students that each group is responsible for creating a neighborhood of a
city. Based on time and material availability, let them know that they will be
creating 2-dimensional plans (see example) or three-dimensional models (see
photo). Tell them that when every group has completed their neighborhood, the
class will come together to join their neighborhoods in a complete city.
4. Review the city word splash from Activity 1.1. These are the elements that need
to be represented in the city and in their neighborhoods.
5. Provide your students with guidance in terms of the following questions:
a. How will our neighborhoods connect with one another? This is a question
of interrelatedness.
i. Potential responses: streets, waterways, greenways, bike paths,
bus routes, subways or trolleys. More than one response can be
appropriate.
ii. Follow-up consideration: you may decide as a teacher or as a class
that these connections need to “match up” (that is, the streets
exiting and entering the neighborhoods need to physically connect
with streets from other neighborhoods), creating a greater
challenge.
b. How will the elements be represented? This is a question of scale.
i. Potential responses: the student groups work independently so that
each neighborhood has some or all of the elements of a city, or the
groups will work together and ensure that the elements are
represented across the city as a whole.
ii. Follow-up consideration: time and efficiency may be a
consideration. If time is very limited, groups can work
independently; if more time is available, your class can try it both
ways.
Cities as Systems Module 1 Lesson 1
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6. Distribute the materials and provide students with the time to complete the plans
or models.
7. When all the student groups have completed their plans or models, come back
together as a class and piece the neighborhoods together. Again, as the teacher,
you can decide how “planned” the city will be: someone (e.g., you the teacher) as
the central planner directing student groups to place their neighborhoods in
specific spots; the class as the whole making decisions; or random placement of
neighborhoods.
8. Once the neighborhoods have been placed, lead a discussion about how the
neighborhoods fit together, what is represented in each neighborhood, and what is
represented in the city as a whole.
Activity 1.3: Systems, Cities, and Time
1. Make sure that you print and cut out enough contingency cards so that each group
receives at least one card (for one event, in the past or in the future). If time
allows, each group may receive two cards: one in the past and one in the future.
2. Tell your students that you will be discussing systems, cities, and change over
time.
3. Ask your students if they have noticed how their city has changed over time.
Allow time for students to share some experiences in this regard.
Grocery
Store
Park and
Playground
Shopping Mall
Apartment Buildings
Apartment Buildings
Factories
Police and
Fire Station
Office Buildings
Apartment
Buildings
Street
Street
Street
Street
Cities as Systems Module 1 Lesson 1
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4. Inform your students that one of the defining characteristics of systems is that
they change over time. Ecological systems, such as cities and urban areas, change
in ways that are not always directed with an end goal in mind, and even when
change is directed, the end does not always match what was expected.
5. Remind your students of the neighborhood and city models that they constructed
in the last activity.
6. Pass out the contingency cards to each group. Ideally each group receives one
past card and one future card of a different event. If time allows only one event
per group, distribute the cards randomly.
7. Ask your students to consider the events and discuss their responses to the
questions. They may simply discuss the questions, write responses in their
notebooks, or create a poster with their responses.
8. Allow time for whole class discussion of the groups’ responses, especially if two
different groups received the same card. Remind them that there is no correct
answer.
9. Ask your students if they have seen similar events in their own city, or in other
cities in the news, on television, or on the Internet.
Concluding the Lesson
1. Discuss with your students the defining characteristics of a system:
interrelatedness of parts, scale, and change over time.
2. Remind them of how these characteristics were discussed in terms of their model
city and in terms of the city in which they live.
3. Remind your students of the driving question for the curriculum, How do we
develop healthy and sustainable cities? (or write it on the board). Remind them
this is the big question that they will be exploring over the course of the year.
Ask for questions, comments or feedback on this driving question.
4. Let them know that in the next lesson they will be talking in more detail about the
pieces that make up an ecological system and the place of people within it.
5. HOMEWORK: Hand out the Field Studies Safety Contract. Ask them and a
parent or guardian to sign it. On their way to or from school, ask your students to
note one item which is living, one item which is not living, and one item which is
made by people.
there was an
EARTHQUAKE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanjoselibrary/4026985542/
in your city’s past
An earthquake ripped through your city
causing buildings to collapse in the past.
Questions to consider: What was your
city like before the earthquake? How has
it changed since the earthquake so that it
looks like it does now?
there was a
FLOOD
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crowt59/2054278016/
in your city’s past
A flood swept through your city causing much
damage in the past.
Questions to consider: What was your
city like before the flood? How has it
changed since the flood so that it looks
like it does now?
there was a
BENEFACTOR
http://www.flickr.com/photos/keenepubliclibrary/4796344402/
in your city’s past
A very wealthy person moved in and has
worked to provide jobs and improve your city in
the past.
Questions to consider: What was your
city like before the benefactor? How has
it changed since the benefactor so that it
looks like it does now?
there was
NO SIGNIFICANT EVENT
http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2163051209/
in your city’s past
Nothing out of the ordinary has happened in
your city in the past.
Questions to consider: What was your
city like in the past? How has it changed
so that it looks like it does now?
there will be an
EARTHQUAKE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/1188322224/
in your city’s future
An earthquake will rip through your city
causing buildings to collapse in the future.
Questions to consider: What will happen
to your city after the earthquake? How
will it change after the earthquake from
what it looks like now?
there will be a
FLOOD
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/2965754035/
in your city’s future
A flood swept through your city causing much
damage in the future.
Questions to consider: What will happen
to your city after the flood? How will it
change after the flood from what it looks
like now?
there will be a
BENEFACTOR
http://www.flickr.com/photos/janbrasna/3324559528/
in your city’s future
A very wealthy person will work to provide jobs
and improve your city in the future.
Questions to consider: What will happen
to your city after the benefactor? How
will it change after the benefactor from
what it looks like now?
there will be
NO SIGNIFICANT EVENT
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/3423689554/
in your city’s future
Nothing out of the ordinary will happen in your
city in the future.
Questions to consider: What will happen
to your city in the future? How will it
change in the future from what it looks
like now?
Field Studies Safety Contract
Please read and sign the following rules contract with your parent or guardian.
By signing this contract, you demonstrate that you and your parent or guardian have read,
understand and agree that you will follow these instructions at all times.
1. Follow all teacher directions. Not following directions will result in spending
the next field visit in the office.
2. Take along your field notebook and something to write with every time we go
outside. Start a new page with the date and time every time we go outside.
3. When we walk out of our classroom, STAY TOGETHER! Cross streets
together to disrupt traffic the least amount possible.
4. At the field site, stay with your buddy. Do not wander off by yourself.
5. Walk, don’t run. Climb, don’t jump. Walk down and up steep inclines using
the side of your foot.
6. Wear appropriate clothes for going outside. Wear appropriate footwear, and
dress for the weather, including a hat and gloves in cold weather, or rain gear
when needed.
7. Use tools and equipment in the manner which they were intended.
8. Point out unsafe situations to your classmates and to your teachers.
9. Never enter deep or moving water
10. We will be picking up trash – please put everything in a bag to return to
school. Leave nothing behind but footprints. NO LITTERING!
11. Make sure you know when and where the group will be meeting.
12. Be aware of your surroundings. Enjoy being outside!
Signing this means that I (student) will follow all of the above rules every time our
class goes outside.
________________________ ______ ____________________________ ______
Student date Parent date
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