Summer SAVY Session 4, Day 1, Planning for the Future
Day 1: Today in Planning for the Future, we explored what it is like to plan sustainable cities. We started by looking at examples of city plans drawn up a long time ago, including William Penn’s plans for Philadelphia and Pierre L’Enfant’s plans for Washington DC in the 17th and 18th centuries. We worked to identify some common proportions and design intentions, specifically around open spaces and parks. Then after lunch, students had an opportunity to plan their own 21st-century city using various percentage constraints, including the amount of open space, schools, single-family housing, multifamily housing, and commercial space needed for a functional city.
Throughout this planning process, students strengthened their fluency with equivalent ratios in the form of fractions, decimals, and percents. As we move through the rest of the week, students will use these various representations of ratios to explore land conservation, deforestation, recycling, oil spills, and more.
One of the consistent themes throughout this course is the importance of writing and communicating mathematically. Solving the world’s problems and developing future plans is only half the battle, the other half is communicating and persuading others that our plans are worth supporting. Students will be working each day to build their academic vocabulary and strengthen their descriptive and explanatory writing skills.
Have a great evening!
Mr. Wooten