Summary:
This program inspires
teachers to take their classes on walking tours in the vicinity of their schools,
concentrating on specific environmental themes, such as nature, trees, pollution,
landmark buildings, statues, and historical architecture. After selecting a
theme and learning about basic cartography, classes map their walking tours
and prepare written descriptions.
The lesson plans are
excerpted from a complete Environmental Education program created by Mike Zamm
for the Council on the Environment of New York
City. They can be used in any urban or suburban neighborhood and adapted
for elementary or intermediate grades.
Standards:
The program provides
teachers with a multi-disciplinary unit of environmental education. It meets
New
York State Education Department learning standards for science, mathematics
and technology (SMT) and can also serve social studies and language arts
curriculum goals. Walking and mapping activities can be combined with service
learning and used by preservation and conservation organizations, historical
societies, art museums and nature centers in their community education programs.
Objectives:
Students will understand
and apply scientific concepts, principles and theories pertaining to the physical
setting and living environment, and recognize the historical development of
ideas in science; Students will apply technological knowledge and skills to
design, construct, use and evaluate products and systems to satisfy human and
environmental needs; Students will apply the knowledge and thinking skills of
mathematics, science and technology to address real-life problems and make informed
decisions.
Lessons:
What kinds of places
would you like to walk to in order to learn more about our neighborhood environment?
(Make a list on the blackboard and have the children copy it in their notebooks.)
Sample Themes
Historical
1. Historical architecture
2. Revolutionary war sites
3. Landmark buildings
4. StatuesNature
1. Tree identification
2. Plants
3. Animal life
4. Soil composition
5. Geological formation
6. Vegetation surveyPollution Sources
1. Noise
2. Air
3. Water
4. Solid WasteCultural Sites
1. Ethnic stores
2. United Nations missions
3. Museums
4. Art galleries
5. Religious architecture
Community Services
1. Hospitals
2. Schools
3. Fire stationsCommunity - Urban Design
1. Art deco buildings
2. Rehabilitated buildings
3. Abandoned buildings
4. Interesting architectural structures, forms, and uses of space
5. Planning maps
6. Community gardensEnvironmental Materials - Substances that constitute the urban environment
1. Metals
2. Wood
3. Slate
4. MarbleNatural Resources Areas
1. Reservoirs
2. BeachesSocial Indicators
1. Population density and breakdown
2. Social problems
3. Crime frequency and type
Students may be given an
outline map or make their own, using local GIS or Internet mapping resources,
such as the TIGER Census
Browser. A teacher-led discussionmight progress through the following questions:
1. What is this? (Hold
up the map.) 2. Show the students
the proper way to place the map on their desks. 3. Who can point to the
hospital on the map? 4. On what streets is
the hospital located? 5. In what part of the
neighborhood is the church between Beverly Road and Albemarle Road located?
(Northern; point out the directional diagram to the children.) 6. Which places on the
map are in the southern part? 7. Summary question:
What are maps used for? (To find out where places are and how to get to them.)
8. Let's pick what kinds
of symbols (if symbols are needed for your theme) we will be using on the walk.
Develop a key with the class. Have the class write these symbols in their notebooks
so they can refer to them during the walk. (Note: The Green
Maps project has developed a set of symbols you may want to use.)
Follow-up Activity:
Ask the children to count
the number of leg spans or steps it takes to go from one neighborhood place
to another - assign individual students to measure distances in this manner
between specific neighborhood spots. Relate these measurement activities to
mathematical measurement of a ruler on a map.
Give the students their
first neighborhood map copies. Make sure that the maps are held firmly against
the writing surfaces, in proper position with north at the top, south at the
bottom, etc. Make the actual walk or walks.
Using the symbols you
have developed, have the students write down the points related to the theme
as the class walks. At each point ask the students to look for the point of
interest, name it, tell the name of the street and the part (northern, etc.)
of the map the site is located on, and finally, have them draw it in. If it
is too difficult or clumsy to connect the points with arrows during the actual
walk, leave this activity for the final classroom mapping exercise. Similarly,
there is no need to draw in or attach a key during the walk; this can be done
in the next exercise on map copy number 2.
Map completion should
follow the walk within 3 days. Under the teacher's direction, the students will
redo the maps made on the walks. Use arrows to indicate walk routes. The arrows
should be drawn neatly using a straight edge and indicate the starting point
(school), route of the walk, and the end point (school). All places and/or symbols
should be correctly situated on the map. If necessary, a transparency can be
used to show where specific sites are located on the map. Any labeling or use
of a key system should be done neatly and carefully.
Follow-up Activity:
Exploring and mapping
the immediate community environment can lead to the development of an urban
environmental planning unit in which advanced and upper grade students study,
draw, map and build model block and neighborhood environments in their classrooms
and workshops. Students can then plan to initiate appropriate actions, e.g.,
cleanups, housing rehabilitations, citizen awareness and letter writing campaigns,
etc. to implement their plans.
LESSON FIVE: Adding
a Page of Explanations to the Maps
Depending on the language
arts ability of the class, students should write a short composition of one
or more paragraphs, explaining the map. The page of explanation should be designed
so that people can understand what the walk is about, and understand what they
are seeing. The page can be attached to the map when both are completed. (Some
students may be able to scan their maps and integrate them with their descriptions
on the computer, for print-out or Internet display.)
Follow-up Activities:
1. Ask students to write
short compositions on specific sites on the walk and how they feel about them.
What was their favorite part of the walk? Why? What building or streets made
them feel happy? Sad? Interested? Bored? What areas would they like to walk
to, map and write about in the future?
2. What about the past
in relation to historical places discussed? Ask capable students to construct
a picture map of their community environment as it looked sometime in the past,
and to write a series of compositions related to this. A special committee could
be developed for this purpose.
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Copies of the complete Walking Environmental Education program are available from The Council on the Environment of New York City.