I am a teacher who wants to create relevant learning experiences for my students.

Kids are naturally curious and I want to respond to their natural curiosity as often as I can and as best I can. When I began planning my unit on ‘Materials and Structures’, I looked for ways to make the learning come alive for my students. My goal was to create hands on learning activities and I wanted them to be involved and engaged in the learning experience. I wanted them to connect their learning to their own communities and homes to make it relevant and meaningful. I remembered a project that two highly innovative teachers at Churchill High School did with their grade 7 Flexible Learning students. The project was called ‘Sustainable City’ and it was based on research that was focused on ways a city can integrate sustainability into communities.

I knew that my grade 3 / 4 students could handle this type of project and decided to integrate sustainability into the ‘Materials and Structures’ unit as well. We would create our own ‘Futuristic Sustainable City’ – we could do this! We learned about renewable and non-renewable resources. I had a guest speaker come in and talk about urban gardening and structures and houses that were made out of recyclable materials such as tires, bottles, etc. After the research was finished we planned our city and went to work. The kids, for the most part, worked in pairs and each pair built a section of our futuristic sustainable city. Students built skyscrapers, houses, a hospital, bank, police station, airport, school, McDonalds, theater and many other buildings you would find in a city.

The finished product was awesome and the students were extremely proud of their accomplishments! We displayed our city for parents during Student Lead Conferences and students were able to share what they learned throughout the project. When students are highly engaged in the learning process amazing things happen for them. They were excited about their learning every day of the month and a half that we worked together. Every day new ideas emerged and were incorporated into projects. Every day my students couldn’t wait to build their structures. I tweeted my ‘Sustainable City’ project so other teachers might be inspired to build their own city with their students.

Erin Dahin
Wellington School
Cluster 1965