The old-school model of passively learning facts and reciting them out of context is no longer sufficient to prepare students to survive in today’s world. Solving highly complex problems requires that students have both fundamental skills (reading, writing, and math) and 21st century skills (teamwork, problem-solving, research gathering, time management, information synthesizing, utilizing high tech tools).

In classes 3M and 3A we have undertaken an ambitious school project for our ETW class. Students will be using their creativity, cooperation independence and commitment skills to design and build their own cities. Organization skills go beyond just making sure our desks at school are clean and tidy, cities need to be organized too so that they make sense for their citizens!

So, what does the project involve?

3M and 3A will be working with in small groups to create and organize their own city. Initially, each child will be assigned just one building. They will oversee this building and be in charge of keeping it organized. They will design their building and decide where the different things that need to be organized should be kept. The teacher will be there for each step, but only to act as a guide. Children will make all the decisions themselves and if a decision doesn’t work out, they will be able to learn from their mistakes and from the problems they have encountered. Once their building is complete it will be time to plan their own city. The children will meet in their groups and share their buildings. Then, working together with their teammates, they will decide where each building should go in their city. This will take some time and may not be straightforward, so they will need to work hard at each step of the project to make decisions and to overcome problems together.

To kick-start our project, we invited two special guests, Li Wan and Xin’an Chi who are both architects here in Chengdu, into our classroom. They talked to the children about things to remember when designing a city. They explained that a good planner knows the community they work for and understands what will work for them and what won’t. They also explained that a planner needs to have good communication skills. They need to be able to understand complex legal terms, engineering tech talk and architecture babble and to then communicate that to every citizens and politicians.

The children were enthralled throughout the presentation, and they asked many questions throughout. Their curiosity and enthusiasm were infectious, and their faces were full of delight. I was so proud of them. The children offered excellent suggestions throughout the presentation by pushing for cities to be greener, and healthier for all.

Once again, many thanks to Li Wan and Xin’an Chi, you for making an extra special lesson for these two classes!