Naomi Meredith  00:00

How can you have students plan and build a community based on Earth's features in an area? Civil engineers and a lot of other STEM careers use GIS or Geographic Information Systems data to help them create a community that will work in the space that they are given. I'll be sharing an in depth overview of the STEM lesson that I tie in using these concepts that you definitely don't want to miss out on. Students will go through the Engineering Design Process and learn more about what GIS is, then they'll be given different data of a fictional location that shows them the landscape of an area. From there, they will create the map of this data, they will build the physical features, and then they will plan a community based on these features, but also think about the way that their community works as a whole. Of course, they will make modifications to their design when things don't work. This is such a fun, Makerspace lesson that my students loved, and I know that yours will too. 

Naomi Meredith  01:39

It's always fun for me to record episodes when I get to talk about the lessons that I've implemented with my students. And I'm always taking pictures and writing notes when I am teaching these lessons with my students. And so when I'm preparing episodes like this, I love to go back and reflect on that experience. A lot of fun things pop up for me that I can't wait to share with you. So for this episode, I'm going to give you an overview of just the nuts and bolts of this lesson and who I taught it to, a snapshot of how the lesson went throughout the week. I will also share some fun stories throughout, how you can get started with this lesson in your classroom, and where you can get all of those resources. Also, thanks to you for filling out the podcast survey a little bit ago. A lot of you really wanted to hear about lesson plans and how I taught them with specific grades. So even if you aren't teaching that specific grade that I taught this lesson in, don't stop the podcast. You can definitely get ideas on how this can best work in your classroom. So don't write me off. It's fun to hear about other grade levels, especially when you teach all of the grade levels. Even if you don't need something for that grade level, it's just good to hear a lot of different ideas. So think of this, like being in a workshop with me, but I'm in your earbuds this time. 

Naomi Meredith  03:03

For this build a city STEM project, I taught this with fourth grade. And of course, you could flex this to third grade, fifth grade, and beyond. There were a lot of different standards that I integrated in this lesson. Of course, the NGSS Next Generation Science Standards that talks about the Engineering Design Process, those were super apparent in this lesson. When it came to a specific grade level standard for fourth grade, there is an NGSS standard that talks about analyzing and interpreting data from maps to describe patterns of Earth features. When it comes to specific math standards that were integrated in this lesson, the mathematical practice was all about attending to precision. And as I am explaining this lesson, you're gonna understand why students had to be really precise, when they are setting up the format of where their study was going to be built. There are also various math skills that are integrated throughout. I know some of you might think that I don't integrate math in my lessons, but they definitely are there. Like I've mentioned in past episodes, I do like to use science as my base. But then all of the standards really are integrated in there. So I'm not handing out worksheets of this math standard and all that math is really embedded in all of these lessons. And sometimes the students don't even know that at the time, which is okay. They're using their math skills. It's almost like when you are feeding kids vegetables that they don't like and you're sneaking them in like making zucchini bread and they really like it. What I have done in the past with my Teacher Honey who doesn't like carrots. And so I bought mashed carrots, and thought he would be tricked and thought they were sweet potatoes but he wasn't but anyway, there is math in this lesson. And so students are attending to a position with that mathematical practice. They're also working on their math facts when purchasing supplies and yes, fourth graders still need this skill when using basic math skills. When we were purchasing supplies, which we'll talk about in a little bit, this was super important for the kids and they needed that extra practice. Also, students will be graphing using data that is provided for them, and also creating the landscapes. They will have to use their measurement skills, and they are building the landscapes based on the measurement skills that are provided in the data as well. I didn't do this step with my fourth graders just with the time I had. But for an extension, a great way is students can build a scaled model based on certain measurements that you give them, or they can make up the measurements. So there's a lot of opportunities for math in this lesson that are definitely embedded all throughout the week. When it comes to English language arts standards, the students will be accessing a lot of nonfiction texts, when it comes to videos, articles, websites, all those nonfiction text features reading a map. And so those are definitely in that lesson and where they can gather information. And of course, don't forget those speaking and listening skills. Oftentimes we think about there aren't specific STEM standards as of this, as of now with this recording, totally true. But those speaking and listening standards are apparent in STEM. And so there's a ton of collaboration and talking about their work in this lesson. Also, when it comes to the ISTE standards for students, students are being a knowledge constructor, and all of those various things that fall under that. So definitely check out the ISTE standards for students, if you're not familiar with them. Again, another great way to integrate STEM and just planning and how you might want to assess your students. If that is an option or something you need to think about. I did teach this lesson five days in a row. But I know we all have different schedules. So modify what works best for you, take out the pieces that you need or don't need. But I'm giving you an overview of how this went in my classroom. 

Naomi Meredith  07:06

To start off this project, students were asked the question that they were going to be answering throughout the week, how can you plan and develop a community based on Earth's features in an area. So not only are students going to be planning and designing a community, they really have to be mindful of the features in the area, and where they can and can't build things. We talked about how if there's a muddy area in a landscape, it doesn't really make sense for a house to be built there. There might be some issues with where the water is filtering, maybe it gets flash floods all the time, that might not be the best place for a house to be built. And there'll be some issues. Likewise, if there is a river or a lake, typically houses aren't built on there, maybe you have a houseboat. But having students really be mindful of the landscape when they're making their decisions, and planning their community it was super good for them to think about. From there, we did some imagining. And students learned more about GIS, geographical information systems, and how they're used in various jobs. We looked at different videos, different websites and examples of how GIS is used. Sometimes it's even there to help communities with water. So real life examples of how this is used in our world, and even day to day as well, when we're using maps in our real lives. From there, we also talked about different people who have jobs that will use data and work together to build and create a community, you have the architects who are really thinking about the design and the structure of the buildings. But then you have the civil engineers as well. And then all of the city planners and just how all those people can work together. There are some great videos out there on YouTube that even talk about this collaboration. And they even talk about words of how the engine, they don't say Engineering Design Process, but they actually talk about how they collaborate and work together. They plan and have to revise their plan. They build their plan, and then they make changes along the way. They have to make decisions. So all those things that you're doing in your class and how they are actually used in the real world. So students were really mesmerized by this. And it really brought up some great conversations with the students of how some of their parents or people in their family or people they've seen in movies have these types of roles and then they are asking them questions throughout the week when they were designing their projects. 

Naomi Meredith  09:36

If you're a teacher who needs more of an extension or you are teaching GT or homeschool, or even a classroom teacher, you can definitely do this lesson. You can have students dive in deeper when it comes to the features that are in a city. Google Earth is a great resource for this and you can even create a scavenger hunt where students are finding different locations in the world and then they can notice the different features that a place might have, such as the human features, the cultural features, the physical features. And this can also tell a lot about a place and how people live, and why a city might be designed the way that it is. So that again, another great extension, another way to integrate a technology tool in your classroom, using those mapping skills, even pulling in a little bit of that social studies, and really helping them be thoughtful when they get to the planning of their city. Of course, there is more than enough information to dive in that background knowledge. And of course, all that knowledge really helps with the building. So take it or leave it, do what would work best with your students. I didn't have time for the Google Earth. But if I were a classroom teacher, or any of those other roles that I mentioned, that's something I definitely would integrate. Now, this project I did a little bit differently than some of my other Makerspace projects. Before students actually drew the plan of their city, they actually had to use the fictional GIS data that I gave them, and really figure out what their landscape was actually going to look like. I didn't want them to create a city on something, they don't know what the city is actually going to look like, what are all the land features, so that was important for them to do. Students got a grid, kind of like a bingo board in a way where one side had numbers and the other one has letters. Then they were given their fictional data, which I shared with them through Seesaw because then they could keep track digitally just by highlighting the data that they colored. And they work together as a partner to color in on their grid, the different landscapes. So let's say these are the areas that are grassy, here is where a river runs through the city color it blue, here's an area that's muddy color at brown, here's a sandy area color that yellow. So this took about a whole class time for students to collaborate and work together to create what their landscape looks like. Now, don't worry, you might be saying, Oh, well, everybody's looks the same. Yes, their map does look the same. I do know this. But once they get into the planning completely different, they needed to have some sort of base to build up off of, then when it came to the physical features of the place, I created clay, some homemade playdough at home that they would actually build on top of this grid, I just put the grids inside of sheet protectors or sometimes large ziploc bags so that the paper didn't get soggy. And then their data actually told them in these areas that you felt, you need to build up the land to a certain height. So having rulers on hand was helpful, because then they had to actually measure how high certain places on the landscape was. Now side tip with the clay eyes somehow super messed up when I made the recipe. And I brought all of this and I found out all these different sensory needs I wasn't quite aware of, because I definitely messed up on this playdough this clay that I made and it was extremely, extremely sticky. Kids were screaming, it was all over my floor, it was all over the computers, the trash can and maybe my hair, it was a disaster. So double check your recipe, maybe even buy some Crayola modeling clay, that would be really awesome. If you bought that because it doesn't dry out. It's super inexpensive. And then at the end of the project, you can actually have kids give you back all of the modeling clay, so that might be working out a bit better from there. 

Naomi Meredith  13:37

When students understood what their landscape looked like, then I actually had them plan out their city and oh my goodness, kids love this step. It's very interesting with this project to get different kids like different parts of this project. And even more interesting because I've known these kids for a long time. There were kids who were like, they go through the motions, they do the projects, like cool, whatever they get into it or not. But those certain hard kids, I don't know what it is about this project. They were super invested in it and they were all in. So that's why I'm telling you having all these different types of experience in your classroom is so important because you never know what students are going to like and not like, but you need to mix it up. Because you can grab those kids at whatever lesson you don't know when it's going to hit them and just bring up this light bulb. So that was super fun to watch in the students. So when it came to this planning, they got super into the planning. Some kids even didn't get to finish their building part because they love the planning piece, almost like creating a blueprint of their city, which is totally fine. That's where they're at in the process. So I'm glad that they were excited about it. With their plan, they had certain parameters that they needed to add to their city so I did want to have them specific things and things that most communities have some of those things, were having roads, a neighborhood, a way to cross the river. It could be however they want. It's across the river. So I got some creative designs there. And yes, I did make the kids have a school, we weren't doing online learning in this place in this fictional place. So there was some sort of school, a lot of kids also added targets, which was super funny as well. And I'll even share some of the things that they added. After students created the plan for their city, then they were ready to build, they did not get unlimited supplies. So I did have my Makerspace menu and money out for them. And they had a budget of $25, where they would purchase the supplies for their city. If you want to hear more about exactly how I use Makerspace money and a menu in my classroom. Go back and listen to episode six, I explain the whole reason behind this, and how this actually helps with the materials and management in your classroom. When you are doing and Makerspace projects like this one. Along the way I shared with students a checklist of ways to modify and improve their design, and waves have, they can actually make it a lot better. This was also a great time, you can also have students think about the scale of the things that are in their city. Again, if you want to go even more specific about the measurements and drawing and creating things to scale, you definitely can do that. So just being really thoughtful about the designs and how everything works together as a community is super important when you're a city planner, and using the landscape to design what you have in front of you. Students were so proud of their creations and they loved collaborating on this. In a lot of ways it was like having a hands on real life SimCity game. I don't know if any of you ever played the Sims, I did play the human version where they had the houses, you build the houses, then you have the people inside. I also would play SimCity and RollerCoaster Tycoon and Sue Tonkin. So I've always had kind of that STEM background, even though I never knew I'd be a STEM teacher. But they loved this hands on thing they got super into it. There are some super cute things that I'm definitely going to link the pictures in the show notes because you definitely have to see what they did. One girl created a restaurant and it looked like a giant fry box with the fries sticking out of it. So a super cute design, and very creative. I love that. That's very good marketing, if that was a business, you have the fries. 

Naomi Meredith  17:36

Also, another student 3D printed something at home and added that to their design and wanted it to be a wind turbine to collect renewable energy of the wind. So that was super cool that they had a moving piece in their design and that it actually spun around. I did take a video of that in action because they were just so cute. There's also in the fictional data a muddy area of the town, one group decided to make this a dirt bike area where people could go and pay and ride their dirt bikes. Another group decided this would be fun to have a pig farm, and all the pigs will be rolling in the mud. So how cute is that. So again, all of their cities had the same landscapes, but their designs were 100% different. And they were so invested in their designs, they were so proud of themselves. When it came to the share piece, I highly recommended for them to take a video of their work, especially since they were working in groups, not everybody could take the project home. And so taking a video was a great way for them to share their work with their families. And you know, there's families who just feel like, hey, we don't need to keep this project. So a video is a really great way again, of course, I use Seesaw. But you could use another platform, like Flipgrid or something like that. With recording a video, they can take their work by taking a video. For students who finish earlier, if you wanted to extend this project even further, they could take a video of their work and then create a little commercial of why you might want to live in this city, and what are the features of this place and try to convince others of why you should live there. So as you're listening, and even while I'm explaining this to you, if I was a classroom teacher, I can see all of these cross curricular connections. And you could do this whole thing for a while. You can have them in reading research about GIS and how that's used in real life and new things that they learned and things that they're wondering and things they want to explore more and social studies. You could have them explore Google Earth, and all of the physical features that have a place in the land and math and you could just combine Math and Science where they're creating scale models of their buildings and then implementing that into their design. In writing. They could write a persuasive essay of the commercial of why you should enter this land. So see how it all came. connect together. When I was a classroom teacher, I was all about projects like this that could connect with everything and actually make your planning so much easier. So, so much fun. There's so many extensions that you can do. So I hope, I hope that you enjoyed hearing more of a deeper dive of a lesson that I taught my fourth graders when it came to planning a city. And of course, I put this all together for you. So go ahead, implement it yourself, I would also love to help you out with the planning. So linked in the show notes is the individual lesson that you can grab for your classroom that has all the research done for you all the vocabulary, all the data, even student examples to get inspiration going with your students, they're definitely going to be creative, they won't meet need a whole lot because this one is a lot of fun. Or you can also see in my free K-5 lesson plan how this connects together with my whole K through five engineering units. So this was one of the many lessons in this case, or five, where students took on the role of being engineers and a lot of different ways. Of course, there are lots of different bundles to with this. So you can buy this individually. There's a grade level unit, you can even look at the whole K through five bundle. Or even if you only teach upper elementary, there's an option for three through five. So lots of different ways where you can integrate this into your classroom and bring that creativity where students are awesome city planners, civil engineers, even that element of being an architect and having that creativity with their building design, but it really opens up the world of just another way how STEM is used in their real lives.