The shape of land and water is impacted by both natural forces and humans.

People and nature are interdependent.  Our choices and actions have intended and unintended consequences on the health of the natural systems upon which all living things depend.

With your students, first list all the ways we use our land to live, work and play  and then categorize them as  residential, commercial, industrial , agricultural.

For this next activity, small groups of students will be given a parcel of land, represented by a section of mural paper (prep instruction to follow)  Each group will be tasked with  developing their parcel for humans to live, work and play.  The only thing existing on this land you distribute will be pre-drawn waterways,

Preparation instructions:

Get a long roll of white paper and cut a mural size piece to begin.. You will make a fictional area of land that has no people yet– just a river and a few small branches or tributaries. Draw one large river on the entire mural  with thickness using two lines.  You can also make  a few branches or  tributaries that flow into the river.  Make sure you add a few arrows to show the direction of the flow. Cut this mural paper into sections now, depending on how many students are in the class and how many you want to work around one piece.

Pre-cut the construction paper into 1 inch squares using red, green and purple sheets.

Red = residential

Purple is industrial and commercial

Green is open space

Don’t let the students know that their rivers are really all connected!  They will only find out that they are connected at the end of the activity…when they learn that we all live upstream or downstream of someone.

A discussion guide for you to use throughout this learning experience may be found here and in the Materials link on the right menu.

Student Land Use Planning Guide: Teacher Discussion Prompts

Ask students to first discuss how they will plan their town. They can place their  squares near or away from the river , in clusters, or stack them.

Mid-way through the group planning, ask students to take a pause and to consider the following two questions:

In your planning, before you decide where to place your squares, have you discussed with your “community members” what they might want and need  in your community? Consider if they are the same things?

How will the people in your community relate to the waterways?  

Once they are set on their plan, glue them down.

As a class, each group will share what they did and why

Discuss the balance of land and water .

Ask your students:

Did you discuss the placement of your houses, shops and factories related to the waterways? Why or why not?

Did you consider water as a way to provide energy? Recreation? Drinking water?

Once each group has had a chance to discuss their plan, now find a place in the classroom that you can connect the river end to end to make one long river.

Point out the direction of the flow and what it means to be upstream or downstream of someone else.

Ask students

What is the impact of your own choices on the neighbors on either side ?

Would you change anything ?

Why?

What if your “upstream” neighbor is a polluter?

How do our individual (group)  choices impact the other individuals (groups)?

If you have time, introduce the concept of reciprocity (a mutual or shared relationship with nature)  Did they plan with that in mind? Why or Why not?