Green Community Teaching Kit
(Grades 5-8)
The Green Community Teaching Kit provides a comprehensive approach to studying green, sustainable communities. Students and educators can create a town from the ground up --complete with model buildings, land use categorization, and planning strategies. Like the Museum's other educational programs, students create their own community by following the steps of the design process. Through this process, students develop skills such as communication, cooperative learning, decision making, analysis, creativity, and innovation.
The Kit introduces students to the town of Grayville, a fictional community synthesized from a combination of real-life case studies. While studying the problems of Grayville, students are introduced to the basics of urban planning including land use and zoning. Students then explore the principles of sustainable communities through the investigation of real life towns and cities and through an examination of green buildings and sustainable technologies. They then use these concepts to re-plan Grayville into a new, livable, green community named Greenville.
The curriculum and materials in the Kit are designed to be reused each school year. The Kit includes a large fabric map, lesson plans, and visual aids, all of which are made out of durable, environmentally-friendly materials. The Kit is designed for students in grades 5-8.
Kit Contents
Curriculum Plan
- Aligned with National Standards of Learning
- Seven core lesson plans plus additional optional lesson plans
- Core lessons require approximately five hours of classroom time
- Orientation section to help you organize lessons to fit your teaching schedule
- Supplemental resource section including vocabulary, books, web sites, videos, and organizations
Teaching Tools
- 5' x 5' foot Fabric Map: Made from recycled fibers. Help turn Grayville into Greenville by physically creating the community on the map.
- Color-coded Land Use Cards: Plan a new community from the ground up.
- Building Boxes: Create your own buildings; combine for larger structures.
- Colorful Posters: Featuring "5 Big Ideas of Green Building" and "5 Big Ideas of Green Communities".
- Full Color Postcards: Learn about existing model green communities.
Now Available
With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Building Museum is able to provide a limited number of Green Community Teaching Kits to teachers at no cost.
Teachers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area
Teachers in the D.C. metro area are welcome to attend a Green Community Educator Workshop on April 13, 2013. The workshop will include model lesson plans, best practice teaching activities, and the content you need to begin teaching the Kit's lessons in your classroom. Teachers who attend the workshop will receive one Green Community Teaching Kit for their school at no cost and additional resources not available through online order. Register online.
Teachers outside of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area
For teachers not able to attend the workshop in Washington, D.C. on April 13, you are also be eligible to acquire a Green Community Teaching Kit. The National Building Museum has created an internet-based training video for the Kit, available on the Museum's website. Educators will be required to view the training session and apply for the Kit online. Once approved, the Museum will deliver a Green Community Teaching Kit to the educator at no cost.
Sponsors
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
