Gene V. Gandelman
Lesson Fourteen: The City of the Future
Objective Students will learn how to use and stretch their imagination to develop creativity.
What will the City of the future look like? What will transportation, housing, shopping, recreation be like in a hundred years. What will the environment and public health be like?
Students will user everything that they have learned and experiences to project themselves into the future. Recalling science fiction, movies like “Back to the Future” and even the hopes and aspirations expressed by out political and social leaders.
This lesson will allow students to be creative, imaginative and have an opportunity to express concerns for the future and the environment.
In writing about the city of the future, students will give reasons why they believe conditions are the way they will be. For example , if a student writes that in the year 2092 no one will smoke, he/she must answer the question “why?” The reason may be that cigarettes are illegal or that tobacco doesn’t grow on earth anymore.
Activities
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1. Write about the neighborhoods of the future. How will people interact with each other? Will they be more friendly, helpful and more concerned? Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
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2. What do you think urban living conditions will be like in twenty or fifty years? Will everyone have enough of life’s essentials thereby eliminating the scourge of crime and violence?
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3. Could city life actually become desirable causing influx rather than exodus?
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4. How might family units and structures differ from today? What changes would neighborhood schools experience or education in general?
When writing your predictions, hopes and expectations, rely heavily on your heart, your conscience, and your creativity. The teacher may wish to read science fiction stories by Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and others that address human behavior and response now and in the future.
