City Construction
Simulation
Purpose: For students to see a connection between governmental
actions and environmental results.
Materials: poster boards; street plans of three
different local neighborhoods; pre-cut pieces of red, orange, green
construction paper that students cut into shapes resembling factory smokestacks
(red), apartment units (orange), & single family houses (green), tape for
paper shapes
• Divide class
into 3 teams.
• Distribute to
each team poster board with a street plan representing a city neighborhood.
• Explain each
neighborhood team must plan their neighborhood goals & request building
permits from the City Counselor (represented by teacher).
• Explain teams
will build their desired neighborhood by requesting building permits for
factory complexes, multi-unit apartments, single
family houses.
• Have each
team discuss its goals send one representative with their building request.
• City Counselor
distributes pre-cut paper symbols to each representative red symbols
(factory complex) orange symbols (multi-unit
apartments), and/or green symbols (single family houses), and responds in 3
different ways:
1 to one
representative refuse permits for single family houses because they waste materials
& space; push factory permits and apartment units because neighborhood
residents need jobs.
• Teams affix colored symbols to street plans and step away to
examine results.
• Teams look
for neighborhood differences: one dominated by large red factory shapes &
orange apartment units, another, by spaced apart green houses; another, by a
mix.
• Discuss consequences:
Ex. Teams with single family house assume residents can afford cars & will drive
to another neighborhood for work while saving their neighborhood from
smokestacks.
•. Explain results
of a study of asthma rates in different neighborhoods: the rate of asthma cases
is proportional to the number of factories in neighborhoods.
•. Wait for
student reaction: blaming city counselor for forcing them to follow his/her plan.
• Discuss why
people in government may be biased toward preserving the environment in some
neighborhoods & creating jobs in others.
• Teams research
statistics of average selling prices of houses in selected towns throughout
state and rate of bronchus/lung disease statistics in these towns. Compare
& record correlation.
• Graph results.