Building a real city from scratch is not like playing Minecraft, Roblox or Civilization. Well, it is a little. But problems arise in reality that don’t come up in cyberspace and the fact that much of the best land is already inhabited by those intractable objects: Humans!

Nevertheless, let’s get the kids learn & understand the step-by-step process of how to build your very own real city... Boomtown.

Step 1: Choose a location

Before you begin, you need a spot. Deserts, undeveloped jungles and uninhabited islands are popular: you don’t want to build your city in an already inhabited place, bulldozing the habitats.

When complete, it should have the basic amenities which I can think of... residential homes, schools, sports centers, shopping centers, hospital’s, farmland, city center – and my favorite design feature- parks with a lots of plants & ponds.

Let’s work on one unique feature to have in our city. Please ask the kids over the week what they would like to be included in the city they are going to build & why?

Step 2: Ensure a reliable water supply

This may sound elementary, but consider what happened to the city of Fatehpur Sikri. The Mughal emperor Akbar commenced the construction of this walled city in 1569, to serve as the Mughal capital. Over the next 15 years, he and his lackeys built royal palaces, harems, courts, mosques and private quarters, all from locally available red sandstone. Shortly after completion, however, Akbar abandoned Fatehpur … in part because of inadequate water supplies.

In our case, kids need to think how & where are they sourcing water from at Boomtown. Whether it’s from a tank or a river source, they need to come up with a cool idea.

Step 3: Ensure a reliable money supply

Again this may sound elementary, but you don’t want to run out of money halfway through building the high-speed train link from Cedar park to the State Capitol. There are various options available to you when it comes to securing the cash... let’s leave that part to the City managers:$)

In our case, we need to ensure we have enough LEGO pieces for our team to build in the given 2 ft by 2ft space. We do have some lying around in our house, but we might need more for the design. In that case we would like to borrow it from you all till the project is done. Please make sure you take pictures of what you bring from your home to take it back once the project is over, for your reference.

Step 4: Think about jobs

If your city is to be economically sustainable, it needs jobs.

What kind of jobs do our Boomtown citizens do? We need parent volunteers to come talk what they work on when they are not around with the kids.. for a few mins. Next week My Dad & Prashanth uncle will let them know what they work on & explain a few basic things what goes into those computers which they carry around so much. The kids need to know what all goes around them to help them understand how our community is benefited by each person. This helps them decide what LEGO character they can introduce in our project as well as their aspirations.

Step 5: Integrate transport

We already have to either do the crane or an elevator in our city, it would be nice to think of a mode of transport in our city. We can invest on an additional set with motor if we decide on this sooner.

Step 6: Make trash clever

This is where our last weeks homework of Single use plastic comes into picture. We need the team to understand that very basic stuff like, plastic water bottles, coffee shop cups, grocery packaging, lunch plates & spoons provided at school & many more are contaminating our planet. Our group of SmartLunarLegoKids need to come up with a motto of not using these at home & start instilling ideas in their friends of what they have learnt & try to follow... baby steps, let’s not use plastic!

In our city, Boomtown I wish we come up with a way of no trash or bins on the street: all household waste is sucked into a vast underground network of tunnels and dispatched to waste-treatment centers where it is sorted and deodorized. Alternatively, information and communications technology can involve sensors that detect when waste disposal pickups are needed, or to measure energy consumption and emissions. It is our city & our responsibility to keep the city clean. This helps in our presentation as well.

Step 7: Maximize connectivity

Internet, WiFi, YouTube ....:) we need our city to be a Smart city .. a hi tech city.. but how? Do we need cables all around?..Nah... dig deeper in the ground? Nah..I am sure one of the parent volunteers will help the kids understand how can this be approached:)

For now, I will stop here. These are some important points I wanted the team to understand & come up with new ideas. The 1hour of practice was not a sufficient time & the 7 & 8 year olds have an attention span of ... 10 mins?;-)

Please read this blog aloud with your kids & help them understand what are the basic ideas which goes in planning for a city. We need them to come up with ideas, we want them to be builders & innovators. Work on their blue-prints & show the world how they make a difference. One step at a time!