Design an Island City Science and Social Sciences Activities: Rising Waters
Description
Climate change, human needs and the concept of sustainability are discussed as your students design a new island for the inhabitants of a small island nation called Chill-Ville, whose current island is shrinking due to rising sea levels.
This is an enjoyable activity that gets your students thinking—great for middle school. Depending on teacher preference, it can last 1-3 lessons.
This Design an Island City resource has five main activities and a teacher notes section with a set of instructions.
- Activity 1: Students attempt to help the residents of Chill-Ville by coming up with ideas about how to address rising sea levels. A link to a short YouTube clip is provided that highlights the plight of a real island nation suffering this fate (Kiribati). Human needs and the concept of sustainability are also addressed.
- Activity 2: Students pretend to be different inhabitants of Chill-Ville and must think about what they would want on the new island.
- Activity 3: Students design the new island, along with flag, laws and government budget.
- Activity 4: Students use rubric to grade their island and then complete a list of “scenarios” to see how well their island manages.
- Activity 5: Students create poster and use persuasive writing to try and get visitors to come and stay at the new island.
Science Topics: Climate change, area, budgeting.
Year Level: Years 6 – Year 8
