Mrs. Christine Hulme, in her first year as Vice Principal at Gleneagles Ch’axay was guest blogger recounting her Gr 6/7 class’ experience as they took on a Future Cities project that spanned close to 12 weeks; involving design thinking through research, a needs assessment process, designing a prototype, highlighting and fixing… and finally “launching” their ideas to an active audience. Please enjoy…

Students in Divisions 1 and 2 embarked on an exciting, project-based learning program called Future Cities.  Over 500 students from 7 classrooms in the West Vancouver School District were immersed in a stimulating learning environment where they were asked to imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future. Students used the engineering design process to design solutions, test, build and share their results.  The challenge was to take this year’s theme of Powering Our Future!  to design a resilient power grid for a city set at least 100 years in the future, that can withstand and quickly recover from the impacts of a chosen natural disaster.  The Grade 6/7 Teachers were enthusiastic to participate in a project that aligns with the GEC L.A.U.N.C.H. cycle and enable students to utilize their ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies) skills to create an effective model.

We began the first stage in our journey by Looking, Listening, and Learning.  This started with exploring different fields of engineering. Students learned about engineers through discussion and research.  We practiced using the engineering design process by applying it to a design challenge called the Tower Building Activity.  

 

Students learned first hand that teamwork is essential to this process. Engineers have to be able to communicate accurately and work well with colleagues and clients in order to be effective members of a team.  They also learned that the combined ideas of the team often leads to the best solutions!

First things first: What, exactly, is a city?  Students were asked to think deeply about what cities are.  What features exist in cities? How are cities organized? Through these questions, the important term “infrastructure” came up.  From here, students continued to ask questions about zoning, transportation systems, and city planning.

In the third stage of the cycle, students established an initial understanding of the scope of the challenge.  Create a city at least 100 years in the future. Design a resilient power grid that can withstand and quickly recover from the impacts of a natural disaster.  Here, students were introduced to the requirements. They also identified resources, constraints, assumptions, and goals as part of their project plan. Deliverables included a Project Plan, City Essay, City Model, and a City Presentation.

In the third stage of the cycle, students established an initial understanding of the scope of the challenge.  Create a city at least 100 years in the future. Design a resilient power grid that can withstand and quickly recover from the impacts of a natural disaster.  Here, students were introduced to the requirements. They also identified resources, constraints, assumptions, and goals as part of their project plan. Deliverables included a Project Plan, City Essay, City Model, and a City Presentation.

In this phase students brainstormed and navigated multiple ideas until they formed a general plan.  They were asked to create a schedule to identify what needs to be done, by whom, and in what order. The schedule helped them to keep track of time and the tasks they had to complete.  We asked students to plan out a blueprint of their city and included lessons on scale. We invited a City Planner from the District of West Vancouver which helped to further solidify concepts on zoning.  Students also explored the video game SIM City and saw how a virtual city runs. They were introduced to collecting taxes, providing jobs, keeping residents happy, and attracting tourism to boost the economy, amongst many other factors.

This is the stage in which students began to build their models.  This hands-on phase allowed the students to take their ideas and turn them into reality.  The students had about 5 weeks in total to build their models and draft their essays. This phase had it all – blood, sweat and tears!  Students were pushed out of their comfort zones, took risks, made mistakes, hit roadblocks, and encountered challenging group dynamics. And while these situations felt stressful, I witnessed firsthand the innovation and imagination it took for each of our 16 groups to reach their common goal.  

In this stage, students determine what is working and what isn’t.   A requirement of their model was to include a moving part. This is where many students had to go back and revise their prototype.  Many revisions were made before their product was ready to launch. One student commented, “my favourite part about future cities was the design process because we kept making changes.  It was a nice surprise that it didn’t turn out the way we first thought.”

Students were also reminded to carefully review the rubric for each deliverable to ensure they met all the requirements.  They were given time to practice their presentations and had practice questions provided to them ahead of time.

It’s Launch Time!

This is the final phase where students send their finished work to an authentic audience.  The presentations were a very exciting moment for students to share the culmination of months of work.  Each Division hosted an Open House where parents and classes were invited to view each of the city models and ask questions.  One student commented, “my favourite part of the Future Cities process as presenting at the Open House because I like talking to people.”  The energy in the room was a clear indicator of a successful project. The students took pride in their overall accomplishments and were engaged throughout the entire journey.