The Model Town Project

The Model Town Project
Interdisciplinary projects like this one help students connect what they are learning across disciplines and apply their knowledge to real-world problems.

The 1st grade’s urban planning unit—which explores the relationship between people and their environment—begins with students investigating their local neighborhoods and discussing how neighborhoods are organized to meet people's needs and wants. Students learn about communities and habitats and come to understand the distinction between living and built environments.

Inspiration
A field trip to the National Building Museum for a workshop entitled "City by Design" follows. In the workshop, students learn about different types of buildings and land use. They then head back to Lowell to plan and construct a model town made completely out of recycled materials.

To help students begin to visualize their town, teachers introduce students to grids, coordinates, and mapping. Students also learn to identify and manipulate 3-D shapes and begin studying the relationship between 2-D and 3-D shapes. Reading The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton gives students the opportunity to discuss the notion of progress. Roxaboxen by Alice Maclerren and Barbara Cooney sparks their imaginative thinking and gets them excited about the prospect of building a town from materials close at hand.

http://www.lowellschool.org/Page/Programs/Primary-School/Distinctions-/The-Model-Town-Project