Habitat 2000 / Learning About Wildlife

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Planning for People and Wildlife

Lesson Information

Age: Grades 4-12
Subjects: Social Studies, Art, Science
Skills: analysis, application, comparing similarities and differences, discussion, drawing, evaluation, invention, media construction, psychomotor development,
problem-solving, synthesis, visualization
Duration: minimum of five 45-minute periods
Group Size: any
Setting: indoors
Key Vocabulary: land-use planning, community, city

Objectives

Students will be able to:

1. describe considerations that are important in land-use planning for cities and other human communities;
2. identify means by which negative impact on wildlife and other elements of the natural environment can be reduced in developing cities; and
3. describe actions that can be taken in some contemporary cities to enhance them as places in which both people and some wildlife can live.

Method

Students imagine and research what the area in which they live was like before a community was developed; design planned communities, and build and evaluate models of their community designs.

Background

NOTE: This activity is used effectively to culminate in a unit on the importance of land-use planning, as well as issues affecting people, wildlife, and the environment.

Cities have developed as people have clustered together for purposes of meeting their needs -- from shelter to food to a sense of community. They have typically developed as a hub of transportation and commerce, again serving as a means by which people meet their day-to-day survival needs. The development of cities, however, has been a mixed blessing. The large concentration of people in a given area has displaced plants and animals that lived there previously and has given rise to problems unique to such crowded conditions. For example, varying forms of pollution accumulate in such centres, frequently with inadequate means for handling them -- from products of industry to human waste.

Most cities are not the result of careful planning. Most have developed haphazardly, with attention to problems taking place when crises emerge. Crime, unemployment, poor housing, smog, contamination of water supplies by industrial and sewage waste disposal, energy consumption, transportation costs, and land-use sprawl are all among the serious problems facing contemporary cities today.

People today are faced with many important choices concerning how and where they will live. Many people in Canada are leaving the cities for suburban and rural life, bringing some of the same problems with them that encouraged them to leave the cities in the first place. New communities -- large and small -- are being developed. Some are the result of individual families moving into previously undeveloped areas; some are the result of business interests organizing to develop resources in an area, and creating entirely new cities in the process. This is happening in areas throughout the planet. Whole areas of some large and old cities are decaying as they are abandoned; in some cities, re-development projects are taking place to try to improve the habitability of the old and dying neighbourhoods.

Ethical questions arise as people make decisions about where and how they will live. Any development or re-development of an area has an impact on the plants and animals who do and can live there, as well as on any people who might live there. Sometimes the development can be of benefit, and sometimes of long-term harm. When such decisions are made, it seems prudent to plan for the impact of our actions as carefully and thoughtfully as possible.

The major purpose of this activity is for students to consider the importance of land-use planning in community maintenance, improvement, and development. The concepts can be applied when considering re-development of old cities, as well as building of new cities and alternative communities in which people can live and work.

Materials

Heavy cardboard or masonite; salt, flour and water to make salt clay for a model-building material; glue; toothpicks; natural materials like dried grass and construction paper for making buildings, roads, people, wildlife, and other components of community; tempera paint, brushes; and any other materials available and useful in model-building.

Procedure

1. This is a "design a community" activity. Ask the students to close their eyes and visualize the community in which they live. If they live in a city, or if there is a city nearby, ask them to visualize how the city looks. Next, ask them to try to visualize what that area might have looked like before the city or community was built in that spot. What plants were common to the area? What animals? Was there water in the area? What was the topography of the land?
   
   
2. Ask for a committee of volunteers to find out more precisely what the land, vegetation, wildlife, etc., was like in their area before their community was built. If the students live in a rural area where there is no city, ask them to find out this information for any city or community of their choice; e.g., the nearest big city. Ask the committee to report back to the rest of the students with this information in approximately one week. Sources could include provincial, territorial, city, or county historical societies, libraries, etc. City, regional, and provincial or territorial land-use planning offices may also have such information.
   
   
3. Ask the committee to report back to the rest of the students. The committee should report both visually and verbally. For example, they should list the descriptive characteristics of the vegetation in the area and identify the kinds of wildlife and the food and water sources upon which that wildlife depended. Ask the committee to describe their findings thoroughly enough that the rest of the students can visualize a clear picture of what the area looked like before a community was developed there. Also ask the committee to leave a visual record of the major information they found for the rest of the students to use as a reference during the rest of this activity.
   
   
4. Next, ask all of the students, including the committee members who did the background research, to divide into working groups of from two to four students. Tell each group that it is their task to develop a community in this natural area, given the background information the committee has provided. In designing their community, they should aim to develop a community in which people live and work with the least possible negative impact on the existing vegetation, air quality, water , soil, and wildlife, at the same time that the needs of the people are met as well. In order to do this, the students should consider the following, as well as factors they identify:

• water sources, transportation, and treatment
• economic base; e.g., industry, small business
• kinds of housing, school, shopping areas, job sites
• ecological and recreational features; e.g., open space, green belts, parks
• sewage and waste disposal and treatment
• utilities
• food sources, transportation, and treatment
• aesthetics
• environmental safeguards
• means to effectively expand the number of people who can live in the community, if necessary, retaining minimum impact on the quality of the environment

5. Once each group has come up with a community development plan, review and discuss their plan with them.
   
   
6. Once their plans have been approved, provide the students with the necessary materials to build a model of their community . (See "Materials" above.)
   
   
7. Once all the groups have developed their models of the communities they have designed, have a "Model Community Design Show," with each of the groups explaining the design features of their community .
   
   
8. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each community design in detail. For example, include "What if" questions, such as: "What if a new school had to be built?" "What if there is a drought or severe winter? Would it be necessary to take special measures to assist the wildlife?"
   
   
9. Return to the models after two weeks to a month and ask the students to reflect upon whether they would make any changes in their community designs, as if they had had the opportunity to "live" in their communities for a while and might now see the need to do some things differently.
   
   
10. Ask a local architect, city planner, wildlife biologist, or other resource manager to visit the class, in order to review and discuss the various model communities with the students who designed them.

Extensions and Variations

1. Show photos of actual cities. Look for advantages and disadvantages of city life, under a variety of circumstances.
2. Get a map showing a community (preferably yours) 15, 25, 50, 75, 150 years ago. Evaluate the planning -- or lack of it -- that seems to have taken place, with what results.

Aquatic Extension

Ten years have passed. Your community has doubled in size. What measures, if any, have you taken to protect the availability and quality of water in the community? What impacts, if any, have there been to wildlife in the area as a result of this increase in population? What changes, if any, need to be made in order to protect the availability and quality of the water resources in this community for the next 25 years -- for both people and wildlife?

Evaluation

Name five important uses that must be considered for land in a human community. For each of the previously mentioned considerations, list two ways that impact on the environment and wildlife can be reduced.

In most major cities, land-use planning has been non-existent or minimal. Describe five methods that might be used to enhance the existence of a city's people and wildlife, with explanations for the methods you choose.