This lesson reminds students and teachers that hands-on geography projects are as close as the nearest vacant lot. Meaningful field study doesn't necessarily involve reserving buses, requesting school funds, arranging for sack lunches, distributing permission slips, and traveling to far away places!

Geography, social studies

Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"

Three to four hours

• Pencils or pens
• Notebooks

Students will

• learn the basics of conducting a field study;
• learn how to develop innovative plans to improve the quality of a community; and
• make recommendations for improvement.

Organize students into cooperative project teams.

Present a series of descriptive words about a place in your community that is both familiar to most of your students and in need of renewal. Include words and phrases that describe both the cultural and physical characteristics of the place.

Ask your students to guess the name of the place described.

Have students sketch a rough map from memory of the area surrounding the place you've described.

Show them slides or photographs of the place.

Ask them to compare their maps to the the photographic images.

Inform students that they will be conducting fieldwork to develop plans for renewing the place.

PHASE ONE—Identifying a Need for Renewal

Explain that most places have human associations as well as physical characteristics that give them meaning. Mention that every community has places whose significance seems to have been lost or forgotten. Ask students to list examples.

Explain how communities change land uses to better meet current needs or to attract new users. Include case studies, if available, to support your points. Include criteria for judging the feasibility and value of such plans.

PHASE TWO—Conducting a Field Study

Have your students observe the place you discussed in class and identify ways in which the environment and human activities are related. Ask them to compile their findings in a narrative form (such as a poem, a story, or an essay) with illustrations (sketches or photographs). They can use the following questions as guidelines:

• What features (sidewalks, fences, buildings, trees) define the perimeter of the place?
• Do you see any patterns (rows of benches, flowerbeds)?
• Are bodies of water present?
• What structures (play equipment, sewer drains, buildings) are located at the place?
• What types of vegetation if any are found there?
• What are the elements of the natural environment? Do they appear to have been modified by humans?
• When does it appear the modifications were made? How do you know? What are the consequences of the modifications on the natural environment?
• In what ways, if any, do human activities vary here from day to night? Weekday to weekend? Season to season?

Create a new map of both the cultural and physical characteristics of the place being studied.

PHASE THREE—Making Recommendations for Renewal

Assign each group of students a description of a population that their renewal plan is intended to serve, such as the elderly, the physically challenged, mothers with preschool children, adults seeking exercise, and teachers.

Ask your students to conduct a short survey of amenities desired by members of their population group.

Have students make a class presentation that outlines the field study process—including diagrams, maps, and narratives—and lists ways their proposed changes could improve the quality of community life.

Invite city or county officials to attend the student presentations and to help evaluate their proposals.

Sarah McCormick of Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, California, contributed classroom ideas for Standard 18.

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