Future City: Climate Solutions by Design

Students will:

• Consider the challenges facing people and our planet.

• Explore the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

• Explore the potential impacts of climate change on cities.

• Work collaboratively as a group to work through solving a problem.

• Design a cardboard city that addresses a specific aspect of climate change.

Students can:

• Identify some prominent issues facing people and the planet, such as climate change.

• Explain sustainable development.

• Create a cardboard city that responds to these potential impacts.

• Work collaboratively with classmates to clearly communicate group responsibilities during the planning and production stages.

• Respond to the prompt and challenges that arise throughout the activity using critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), imagine, design, build, climate change, flood, temperature, drought, wildfire, sea levels, design, architecture

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The SDG goals were created in 2015 by leaders from around the world to make the world a better place by 2030. These goals focus on helping people, protecting the environment, and ensuring everyone has a fair chance at a good life. 

Design

When designing something new, it is always a good idea to research and evaluate existing products. Since students will be developing concepts for a future city, share key ideas from other countries' efforts to shape cityscapes in response to climate change. The teacher's slideshow has links to future city concepts that will significantly inspire students.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variety of all living things and their interactions. Studying how living things interact can help our students build for the future.

Climate change

The Earth’s climate is changing and becoming unbalanced due to the use of resources like coal, oil, and gas, which emit large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Sustainable Architecture

Sustainable architecture means designing buildings that are good for people AND the planet.  Provide examples of sustainable architecture to inspire students in developing their future city concepts.