Design & Build Your Own City

One of the big projects I do each year with my 8th grade engineering students is to have them design and create their own city.  We start out this unit by talking about city planning, using the city they live in as an example.  We look at some of the design and planning maps and I have some of the city planners come and talk with students to explain what goes in to designing a city.

Our next step it to have the kids choose their team (3-4) and start researching information about city design to build on the knowledge they gained from our speakers.  Each group chooses a city zone to build and designs their city to scale using SketchUp (a free, online CAD program).  They plan with their group regarding what buildings should go in the zone and then determine how they will divide the work to accomplish their goal.  We work with Engneering notebooks for planning along with guide sheets to help them and work logs to keep them all on track.

Once the designs are completed, each team actually builds their zone, utilizing chipboard and a variety of other materials to create their city zone to scale.  I provide materials in the classroom, but sometimes students want something specific that i don't have and I allow them to bring that (if they clear it with me first of course!).

This portion of the project takes us several weeks.  Once all the buildings and decorations have been completed, we work together as a class to combine the buildings to create the end result of a city.  We leave it set up for a few days so that other teachers and students can "visit" the city and admire the hard work!

If you'd like the entire lesson, planning sheets, work logs and student handouts, it is available to download here.