Community Geography & Land Use Teaching Resources

CURRICULUM  /  ACTIVITY GUIDES

Architecture in Education: A Resource of Imaginative Ideas and Tested Activities by March Abhau,
Rolaine Copeland, Greta Krenberger . Foundation for Architecture. Philadelphia, PA. 1986.

Creative Teaching With Historic Places published by the National Park Service in Cultural Resource Management. Volume 23, No. 8, 2000. ISBN: 1068-4999. This issue can be accessed electronically through the
Cultural Resource Management homepage at http://www.cr.nps.gov/crm This issue has a collection of articles that includes tips on interpretive planning, showcases examples of ways to tell the stories of places using case studies
that describe effective public education initiatives at a variety of sites.

Changing the Land (Timber Wolf) Activity in Winter 2000 issue of Wisconsin EE News. Contact Al Stenstrup
(stensa@dnr.state.wi.us) with the Wisconsin DNR to request a copy.

Greening of School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning edited by Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn. 2001.
ISBN: 0-86571-436-3 To order, call 1-416-960-1244 or http://www.greenteacher.com

Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth.
ISBN: 1-58017-088-9
This book describes nature journaling—the regular recording of observations, perceptions, and feelings about the natural world around you, and how to do it. Nature journaling provides a vehicle for building one's sense of place, for identifying and recording what is of personal interest and importance in one's community and surroundings. Nature journaling stimulates more careful observations, through drawings and short descriptions, and records one's responses to and reflections about both the built and natural worlds.

A Sense of Place: Teaching Children About the Environment With Picture Books by Daniel A. Kriesberg. 1999. Teacher Ideas Press 1-800-237-6124. Books described are primarily for K-6 students.

This Land Is Your Land by MSU Extension's United Growth for Kent County project (2002). http://www.msue.msu.edu/kent/yourland
A free, activity-based youth curriculum on land use issues downloadable from the internet. The curriculum was designed to enable young people to contribute solutions to current land use issues, as well as, participate in making sound decisions now and in the future.

Viewfinders (Gr.2-6) 1996. The Dunn Foundation, Warwick, Rhode Island (http://www.dunnfoundation.org )
An interdisciplinary upper elementary curriculum emphasizing connections between the environment, community and aesthetics. The eight activities in ViewFinders increase awareness of the visual environment through a hands-on
approach to learning. The activities can be used either as a complete unit or as supplementary lessons. Teacher background materials, extension activities, a guide to additional resources and a student reading list are included. The curriculum introduces students to the concept of the visual environment, interrelationship between the built and natural environment, how the visual environment affects our economy and quality of life, an appreciation of their community's appearance, and an understanding of the mechanisms by which change in the visual environment can be implemented.

Viewfinders Too: Exploring Community Appearance (Gr. 6-8) 2002. The Dunn Foundation, Warwick, R.I.
Provides eight lessons for students to explore their visual landscape and become active stewards of their community's visual environment. Provides an exciting set of activities that will:

• increase students' understanding of visual pollution issues,
• guide students in exploring and analyzing the visual environment within their own community,
• provide the resources to compare and contrast their community's visual environment with the visual environments found in communities in other locations,
• teach how to use planning tools to bring about change, or sustain the current visual and community character of where they live.

Students are challenged to look at their communities critically and creatively develop their vision of the future. Includes Community of Choices (30 min.) video. To order, contact: www.dunnfoundation.org

Walk Around the Block by Ginny Graves et al. Center for Understanding the Built Environment. 1992. Prairie Village, Kansas. A K-12 activity guide that increases understanding of the architectural design, city planning and
human processes which influence how our cities work. To order, call: 1-913-262-0691

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Where Once There Was a Wood by Denise Fleming. 1996. ISBN: 0805037616. Ages 4-8
Examines the many forms of wildlife that can be displaced if their environment is destroyed by development and discusses how communities and schools can provide spaces for them to live. Pheasants, red fox, raccoons, great horned owl--these and other animals are brought to life in this exquisite book by Caldecott Honor winner, Denise Fleming. Her lyrical text and rich, exuberant art combine in an ecological tribute to our disappearing wildlife.

The Empty Lot by Dale H. Fife. 1996. ISBN: 0871568594. Ages 4-8
A man who is about to sell an empty lot to developers discovers that the plot of land is far from empty. The sights and sounds of nature's tenants convince the man to save the lot from the bulldozers. The man finds that the area already has plenty of tenants: a tree is an apartment house for birds; frogs and insects share the stream; children have built a tree house. The man changes his sign to: "Occupied Lot. P.S. Every square inch in use.''

Flute's Journey by Lynne Cherry. 1997. ISBN: 0-15-292853-7 Ages 4-8
When the snow flies, thousands of birds migrate south to avoid the icy tempera-tures and shortage of food. With canny understatement that gives the story its power, Cherry traces one wood thrush's flight from Maryland to Costa Rica, and back again. The trip is filled with risks, both natural and manmade. Flute must battle natural foes like cats and harsh weather along both legs of his journey. Forests where he once took refuge have become suburban sprawls, and lawn chemicals taint insects Flute eats, making him ill. Cherry documents nature as it is today, without idealizing or fictionalizing the struggles of bird life.

Home: A Journey Through America by Thomas Locker. 1998. ISBN: 015201473X Ages: 8-adult
Home is more than just the place we return to after being away. Home is something that becomes part of us as we live in it. For artists and writers, home can become part of how we see the world and how we shape our words or our artwork. For everyone, the place we call home becomes a part or our lives. This book contains writings by various authors about the places that they call home—Pacific coast, plains, midwest heartland, Hudson River valley, and more.

Peter's Place 1996. Ages 4-10
An incident that's achingly familiar today is personalized in a quietly told disaster story. Peter's place is a windswept ocean beach, full of life, until an oil tanker is wrecked on the rocks, and slick blackness spills everywhere. Foreman's watercolors capture the wide view of the seacoast and the fragility of its wildlife. Slowly Peter helps a team clean the sticky slime away and helps save a special eider duck. The healing nature of time passing is credited, and the book ends with partial restoration of a safe habitat. The story is told in a clear unemotional tone, the effect of which underlines the sorrow. No blame is placed; no moralizing is apparent, but the message is clear nonetheless.

River by Debby Atwell. 1999. ISBN: 0395935466 Ages 4-10
With direct language and colorful paintings, Debby Atwell relates the changes that occur through the centuries along a riverbank, from the arrival of the first humans to the coming of the first settlers, from the industrial revolution to the present day. Over time, development occurs along its banks and the river gradually becomes depleted as more and more people use its resources to build cities, transport goods, and handle sewage. When overuse and carelessness finally take their toll, the river's natural beauty and resources are compromised. Travel downstream
through time as Atwell's evocative text and narrative paintings show how the river changes.

A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry. 1992. ISBN: 0152005420 Ages 14-adult
Long before English settlers came to New England, a tribe of Algonquin Indians discovered a sparkling, clear river they called Nash-a-way. By the 20th century, waste being dumped into the river (now called Nashua) had all but killed it, until one woman and her supporters fought to to clean up the river and restore its wildlife. An ecological fable encompassing 500 years of American history.

Letting Swift River Go by Jane Yolen. 1995. ISBN: 0316968609 Ages 4-10
The historic transformation of the Swift River valley and the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir told through the eyes of Sally Jane, who learns about reconciling necessary change with the enduring value of what is lost. Yolen's poetic narration, in the voice of a woman who was six years old when her family learned they would have to give up their home, recalls the tranquility of a rural community where children fished in the river and picnicked in the graveyard. Then, ``it was voted in Boston to drown our towns that the people in the city might drink.'' Graves are moved, trees cut, homes bulldozed, and the river dammed to cover the little towns and create a new, quite beautiful landscape. In the last scenes, the narrator and her father revisit the scene in a rowboat, pointing out underwater landmarks and finally, looking ``down into the darkening deep,'' letting go.

Window by Jeannie Baker. 1991. ISBN: 0688089186 Ages 4-12
Chronicles the events and changes in a young boy's life and in his environment, from babyhood to grownup, through wordless scenes observed from the window of his bedroom.

The Land of Gray Wolf by Thomas Locker. 1996. ISBN: 0140557415 Ages 6-10
A young boy, Running Deer, and his small Native American tribe, struggle to preserve their land while holding onto their traditional way of life in a turbulent modern world.

From Dawn to Dusk by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. 2002. ISBN:
Chopping wood in the fall, hauling sap in buckets in the spring, and weeding and hoeing in the summer---that is life on a farm in the North. It is also seven months of sloppy, impossible mud and snow season, and annoying bugs all summer-long. Why would anyone miss this place? A love of life and a love of place shine through in the rich prose, illustrated with evocative woodcuts. At the story's end, readers from cities, towns, and country will ask themselves, "What would we miss most about our home?"

Before & After: A Book of Nature Timescapes by Jan Thornhill. 1997. ISBN:
As time passes, all living things change. They move, grow, and change appearance. Some changes are easy to see, and others you really have to look for. Each special place in this book, from all over the world, is shown twice:
before, and then after time has passed. Readers are encouraged to look closely at the first picture, then turn to the second picture and figure out how things have changed. At the end of the book, the author describes each of the book's paintings, calling them nature timescapes, because of the ways that time changes nature's landscapes all over the world---from the deepest forest to your own school yard. Two additional questions may be asked: 'How do humans affect the rate and types of changes to nature timescapes?' and 'Do human communities change, as well?'

Looks Count!
Community Planning, Natural Resource Protection and the Visual Environment
An Interdisciplinary Middle School Curriculum Unit for Social Studies, Language Arts, Math, Science, and Art Find out more at Land Use and Community Planning

Design Guidelines
to Enhance Community Appearance and Protect Natural Resources-a guidebook for decision-makers, planners, and citizens, Find out more at Land Use and Community Planning

VIDEOS

Back to the Future—Designs for Walkable Neighborhoods. Citizens for a Better Environment. 152 W. Wisconsin Ave., Suite 510, Milwaukee, WI 53203. Tel: (414) 271-7280 (19 minutes). Illustrates what its like trying to walk through a community where sprawl has taken place. Provides suggestions for how to design for diverse land uses while still maintaining a sense of community.

Community of Choices (30 min.). 2002. Produced by the Dunn Foundation and narrated by Edward T. McMahon of The Conservation Fund. This video is a component of ViewFinders Too: Exploring Community Appearance. Illustrates how planning is the key to protecting and enhancing the natural, cultural, and historic characteristics of a community. To order, contact the Dunn Foundation, http://www.dunnfoundation.org or call 401-941-3009.

Looking at Change Before It Occurs. Produced by Maguire & Reeder. Available from Design Access, 401 F St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. (17:20 minutes) Illustrates how planners can work with communities to develop visual displays of the consequences of choosing or not choosing various planning options.

REFERENCE BOOKS

Divorce Your Car by Katie Alvord. 2000. ISBN: 0865714088 Ages: teen-adult
In spite of America's enduring love with the automobile, there have always been those who have said it wouldn't last! Or at least there have been those who have suggested that it shouldn't last. Recent arguments include Jack Doyle's Taken for a Ride: Detroit's Big Three and the Politics of Pollution and Jane Holtz Kay's Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back (1997). Alvord traces the history of America's dependency on the automobile and details why we should reconsider the relationship. The reasons include pollution from auto emissions and oil spills, the expense of car ownership and its hidden inconveniences, and the grim consequences of traffic accidents. She then examines substitutes for driving, such as walking, bicycling, carpooling, public transit, alternative fuels, telephone, and e-mail. Alvord writes with good sense as well as humor, which should help her win converts.

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WEBSITES

Elm Street Writers' Group http://www.mlui.org/projects/growthmanagement/elmstreet/hylton2.html
Michigan Land Use Institute http://www.mlui.org
The Urban Land Institute http://www.uli.org
Index of websites on urban sprawl http://www.preservnet.com
Partners for Livable Communities http://www.livable.com
National Main Street Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation http://www.mainst.org
The Smart Growth Network http://www.smartgrowth.org
Center for Livable Communities http://www.lgc.org
The Dunn Foundation http://www.dunnfoundation.org
Picture Smart Growth http://www.picturesmartgrowth.org/
1000 Friends of Wisconsin http://www.1kfriends.org/
Smart Growth America (report: Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact) http://www.smartgrowthamerica.com/
Terra Server (aerial photos for most regions of the country) http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/default.asp)