Sustainable cities and communities

Teacher asks students to “travel in time” and imagine a sustainable version of their community or city in 2050. Students are asked to explain and justify their answers.

Students work in groups and use air photos or Google Earth systems to create a model of their community or city as it is nowadays.

Then they share ideas about the things that they like/dislike, whether they think that their city is sustainable or not, and discuss what they want to change in their model for their city/community to become more sustainable. They amend their model and transform it accordingly. Finally, each group presents its model to the rest of the class, describing which current features and characteristics of their city they consider unsustainable, explaining the changes that have to be made to transform their city into a sustainable one.

In groups, students analyse various photos of different settlements. Each group works on a different type of settlement in terms of region, context and time period, identifying the main key characteristics of the settlement and connecting these with the fulfilment of human needs as well as environmental and socioeconomic factors.

Each group presents the findings to the rest of the group. Then all the students discuss the differences and similarities between the various types of settlements over time in different regions and discuss whether the settlements, as systems, satisfy human, environmental and economic needs or not.

Brainstorm factors and indicators for a city or a community to be sustainable. Classify and discuss responses and consider why they are considered to be sustainable. Decide collectively on a set of sustainable indicators for a community/city.

In groups, create a model of a community or city that meets these indicators and then present it to the rest of the group.