Urban Planning Teacher Resources
What makes a city successful? Urban planning and design is the key to a safe and sustainable city that maintains a stable population. As you plan a unit on urban planning, check out Lesson Planet’s teacher-curated resources that make a perfect addition to your social studies curriculum.
Start out with a video on building the ideal city, or another video that puts an environmentalist lens to living in a tightly packed city versus in a neighborhood of suburban sprawl. Elementary learners can apply the themes from Lorinda Bryan Cauley’s Country Mouse City Mouse to a lesson that compares images from urban cities and rural towns.
High schoolers work on critical thinking with a lesson that studies the changes of New York City throughout the 20th century, or a project-based learning experience that explores the possibility of green urbanism and its potentially positive impact on democracy and community citizenship. Additionally, they can explore green infrastructure solutions with a stormwater runoff design plan.
The future comes closer with every new school day, and with some great teaching (and high-quality resources from Lesson Planet!), your students will be ready to greet it!
Showing 74 resources
Lesson Planet Curated
Becoming Us: Borderlands
Three case studies make up a unit the looks at the power contentions and exchanges in the borderlands that have shaped the United States. The first case study focuses on creating the US southern border and the experiences of people...
American Institute of Architects
Architecture: It's Elementary!—Fifth Grade
Young citizens construct an understanding of urban planning in this cross-curricular unit. Covering every aspect of city development from the political, economic, and social influences to sustainable building practices, this 10-lesson...
Curated OER
Design for Social Justice
Students create a solution to a social justice problem within their community. In this urban planning lesson, students read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. Students then complete a research...
Curated OER
Volcanoes and Urban Planning
Students analyze satellite image data of Volcan Villarica. In this earth science lesson, students identify dangerous areas surrounding the volcano. They propose a new safe location for the town.
Curated OER
Simulation: Urban Planning for An Ancient Mayan City
Students participate in the simulation of planning an ancient Mayan city. In this urban planning lesson, students role play as citizens of an Mayan city. They act out their roles in a classroom that has been rearranged to simulate the...
Crash Course Kids
Let's Build a City
Explore the concept of engineering through urban planning with a video that strives to answer the question, "How can we use engineering to design a city that is safe, healthy, sustainable, and fun to live in?" Additionally, future...
College Board
2015 AP® Environmental Science Free-Response Questions
Less than eight percent of AP Environmental Science test takers earn the highest score possible. Help scholars improve their scores by using actual test questions on water quality and urban planning before reading sample responses that...
Skyscraper Museum
Changes in a City Over Time
Investigate the growth and development of New York City with the final lesson in this four-part series on skyscrapers. Learners first explore the concept of urban growth by looking closely at a series of three paintings made of Wall...
Curated OER
Kid City, USA
What a model community would look like? Get your kids talking with an activity that allows them to create their own town. After printing out a "fold out village," groups of students use a variety of resources to help them build an actual...
Curated OER
The Urban Explosion
Students investigate the uncontrolled development of the world's major cities. They define key vocabulary terms, view and discuss video excerpts, and complete a project that involves drawing a "perfect city," developing a plan to...
Curated OER
Create a City: An Urban Planning Exercise
Students explore the effects of population growth in Arizona. In this history lesson, students work in small groups to create a "perfect" city. Activities include examining the Arizona census results then discussing the importance of...
Curated OER
Firefighting and Community in Colonial America
Students view two unknown historical objects and try to identify their function by looking at and asking questions of their appearance and function. They use critical thinking skills to view a number of images and objects. They make...
Curated OER
Urban Planning: Plan a City
Students analyze the concept of urbanization by planning the placement of some of the major urban/suburban features that make up most cities. They arrange the cultural features to benefit the people who live there, and maintain respect...
Curated OER
Applied Science- Built environment Lab (Trains)
Students examine transportation. In this train design lesson, students study how trains work and how to efficiently design a track by working with an electric train set. As a class they compare various types of trains and work...
National Library of Medicine
Your Environment, Your Health: Runoff, Impervious Surfaces, and Smart Development
Can a sidewalk increase the amount of pollution in local streams? Scholars learn the answer to this question though research and experimentation in the fifth unit in the six-part series. Pupils study runoff, impervious surfaces, and the...
Pace University
Urban Communities
Urban communities are the focus of a series of lessons created to meet specific needs using differentiated instruction. A pre-assessment designates scholars into three groups based on their ability level. Small groups take part in...
Smithsonian Institution
Borders and Community: Early 20th Century Chicago Neighborhoods and Ethnic Enclaves
Chicago is one city, four neighborhoods, and countless nationalities. The lesson explores the ethnic division of Chicago in the early twentieth century. Academics read primary sources, analyze maps, and tour an online exhibit to...
MinuteEarth
How to Build a Better City
Think you're helping the environment by living in the suburbs rather than the city? Think again! Young scientists examine the effects of urban sprawl in a video that compares the environmental advantages of closely packed city life to...
College Board
2017 AP® Human Geography Free-Response Questions
How have urban planners tried to attract people to cities? What can be done about booming birth rates in some parts of the world? How does a country's political structure affect the well being of its people? Scholars investigate these...
Polk Bros Foundation
Chicago: Choices and Changes
Chicago, a city that is ever changing. A thought-provoking lesson, geared toward third-grade social studies, explains how the city of Chicago has changed over time. It discusses important leaders to the founding of the city, like Daniel...
School Improvement in Maryland
Smart Growth
New roads, new businesses, new developments, new mass transit systems. All growth has both positive and negative effects on communities. Government classes investigate the principles of Maryland's 1997 Smart Growth program and the...
College Board
2005 AP® Human Geography Free-Response Questions
Why do people leave their home countries and come to the United States? How has nationalism affected European nations politically and socially? The answers are complicated. Pupils explore the intricate dynamics using structured questions...
Curated OER
Reach For The Sky
Students consider alternative designs for a tall building and choose one of their designs to build. As a final step, they design and construct a model of a skyscraper.
Curated OER
Mapping My Community
Ninth graders are introduced to GPS technology. They complete fieldwork as they visit a specific area of their community to identify and map types of land use in the surveyed area. They use the collected data to create a digital map.
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