7th grade, Sustainable cities and communities 

We had a whole week working on the subject sustainable cities and communities.

We startes by repeating the general understanding of sustainability before we moved on to “future transportation”, pupils read texts, discussed and made a vehicle. They presented their vehicle and answered questions about the sustainability of their model.

Sustainable cities - 3rd grade at Ramberg Skole

First of all we made sure we had a whole day to work with the subject sustainable cities. We wanted to really dig deep, and also make sure the end results where satisfying for both students and teachers. The students have some experience with the term “sustainability” and UNs sustainable development goals, and are mostly familiar with the environment part of it. In this lesson we were touching some aspects of the social and economic parts as well. We were using different mediums to reach our goals - short movies, presentations, discussions, writing and Minecraft Education.

The goals for the lesson are:

• I know what sustainability is.
• I know what a sustainable city needs.
• I can make a sustainable city in Minecraft.

We started the day off with two animations about UNs development goals, followed with a reflection and discussion collectively. This was supposed to be a starter for the first task. In the first task the students were writing individually. They were reflecting over what sustainability means, and what a sustainable city is. This was short and effective. Just an outlet for their initial thoughts. After the writing task we were moving towards our main subject - sustainable cities. The teacher had a presentation about sustainable cities. We discussed and reflected with examples of different sustainable cities like Copenhagen, Stockholm, Vancouver and San Francisco , among others. First of all we discussed what a city needs to work, like electricity, water, transport, waste management, food and safe housing. Then we discussed how a city can stay sustainable while still meet the peoples needs. We talked about sustainable transport like electric busses, bike routes and trains and how important public transport is to make sustainable choices. Copenhagen was an example of great bike routes and easy access to bikes. Only 17% in Copenhagen are owning a car. Some students were amazed. Some are used to having two or three cars at home. The students had a lot of good ideas and examples during this presentation. They were ready for the next step.

The next step were Minecraft. And most importantly how we use Minecraft to reach our goals for the lessons. First of all we explored “Sustainability City”, which is a pre made city in Minecraft that included components of a sustainable home, managing waste products, clean electricity generation, responsible forestry and clean energy reservoirs. The goal here was to show good examples of a sustainable city in a medium the students are familiar with. We had a short presentation of the task in Minecraft, and the teacher showed the students tips on how to build windmills, solar panels, bike roads and a recycling center etcetera.

The students were now ready to start building their city. They had lots of inspiring ideas and could not wait to start planning and building with their learning partner. The results were quite good even after the first ten minutes. Like we mentioned earlier, this is a medium the students are very familiar with, and most of them know the ins and outs of the technical aspect. They started to build their homes and at the same time thinking about what materials they use, and why. It was essential that every aspect of the building was sustainable. They made their own farms, “green” buildings, bike routes, electric transport, hydro, wind and solar power, and recycling centers with self efficient solutions.