We Built This City! A Study on Urbanization

Jefferson Starship may have built their city on rock and roll, but Seabury students got a chance to build their own cities this week, with paper, creativity, and a little frustration mixed in! Seabury Middle School's theme this year is Modernity, and students dove in feet first this week with a study of the modern city. As a backdrop, we learned about life in a typical 1700s England village, with its small farms and cottage system of textile manufacturing. We learned about family and village life in the days before the Industrial Revolution.

We then began a map making exercise, where students drew villages out on large sized graph paper. Bit by bit, their cities grew. Students were told when new factories were developed, when the population of their villages grew, when citizens demanded amenities such as theaters or museums, etc. They slowly built their cities up, but they quickly realized the stress the new growth put on the landscape. Trees needed to be removed, rivers were polluted with factory waste, housing was short. Then, the railroad came to town and they struggled with where to place it amongst their already busy city.

We discussed urban planning and the challenges of building a city that is both functional and also a happy and joyful place to live. Students studied their maps in small groups, identifying the problems that were created as the cities grew without a plan. One student correctly pointed out, "You created this activity with the goal to have our cities fail, didn't you?!"

But, we couldn't leave it there! Students then got another chance- to rebuild their cities with the challenge of creating a community that would make residents happy both now and in the future. Next week, we will take this further by exploring how Tacoma has grown and developed over time.