| Unit
1: Urbanization and Global Change
Instructor's Guide to Activities |
Goal
The goals of the activities in Unit 1 are (1) to introduce students
to the rapid growth of urbanization in a global context, (2) to strengthen
students’ understandings of the patterns and processes of urbanization,
and (3) to help students begin to think about the Latin American city and
urban context in particular.
Learning Outcomes
After completing the activities associated with this unit, students
should:
| Activity 1.1: Past, Present, and Future Urban Agglomerations | -- Data analysis and basic map creation and interpretation |
| Activity 1.2: What Does Sprawl Look Like? | -- Map interpretation and class discussion |
| Activity 1.3: A Study of Air Pollution in Mexico City | -- Critical reading of journal articles and class discussion |
| Activity 1.4: Visualizing Urban Landscapes: First Impressions of a City | -- Team work, library and Internet research, and poster presentation |
Suggested Readings
The following readings accompany the activities for this unit. Choose those readings most appropriate for the activities you select and those most adequate for the skill level of your students.
| Activity 1.1: Past, Present, and Future Urban Agglomerations |
Goals
Students become familiar with data about urban areas and see how patterns
of world urbanization have changed and shifted regionally over time. Students
consider the reasons for the rapid and concentrated urbanization in the
South and its implications for people around the world.
Skills
Tasks
This activity is a good introduction to the entire module and sets
the stage for the topics that will be covered in subsequent units and activities.
Divide the class into groups of three or four students and provide them
with data in Supporting
Material 1.1a (either as a handout or on an overhead transparency)
and several blank copies of the world map provided in Supporting
Material 1.1b. Choose several different decades from the data
provided and ask students to identify the location of the 15 largest urban
agglomerations for each of the selected decades on the world map. Be sure
to select decades that will allow students to see the trends over time.
You can also ask different groups to compare different decades. This part
of the activity helps students visualize the spatial patterns of the data
at a global scale. Students may need to consult a world atlas to locate
the urban agglomerations correctly. Allow 20- 30 minutes for this part
of the activity.
Next, allow students about 10 minutes to discuss with their groups the questions on the student worksheet (also listed here). Use the last 10-15 minutes of the class to initiate a class discussion of their maps and their responses to the questions.
| Activity 1.2: What Does Sprawl Look Like? |
Goals
Students use maps of cities in North America and Latin America to recognize
urban "sprawl" and to look for similarities and differences between large
metropolitan areas.
Skills
Suggested Map Sources
Divide the class into groups corresponding to the number of maps you have located. Ask them to examine the maps and to consider the following questions (also listed on Student Worksheet 1.2):
If you have access to the State of the World Atlas (Seager 1990), ask one group to focus specifically on this source. Ask them turn to page 40 and notice where "city sprawl" is found across the globe. Then tell them their task is to look through the rest of the book and find maps that show the environmental problems generally associated with city sprawl (pages 48-49 on air quality and 62-63 on acid rain are of particular note, and students can probably make a good case for others). The New State of the World Atlas (Kidron and Segal 1984) could also be used (map #46 depicts "urban blight" and maps its effect on safe drinking water and sanitation services).
After students have had 25-30 minutes to review the maps, bring the class back together and spend a few minutes asking each group to share some of the things they came up with while looking at their maps. You could also open the discussion and let students volunteer information. In either case, make a list of their observations on the chalkboard so that the similarities and differences become apparent. Once the list has been created, ask students the following questions to conclude the discussion:
| Activity 1.3: A Study of Air Pollution in Mexico City |
Goals
Students examine air pollution in Mexico City to understand the complexities
of global change. In addition, students become comfortable with the terminology
of "global-to-local" scales and are exposed to the different ways that
this relationship can operate.
Skills
Task
Students unfamiliar with geography may initially have difficulty understanding
the distinction between global, regional, and local scales and the importance
of scale to geographic inquiry. They might also have a hard time understanding
the way that geographers conceptualize forces that operate at different
scales and how processes at different scales affect one another.
This activity focuses on human impact on the environment with an emphasis on the global and regional scales. The example of localized air pollution allows an examination of the complexities of global change. Biology, chemistry, industry, transportation, economics, population, geomorphology, climatology, land-use planning, politics, and policy all feature prominently in this example.
After students have read the suggested readings (Gilbert 1994; Bartone 1991; Collins and Scott 1993; and UNEP 1992), ask them to make a list of as many causes and effects of air pollution in Mexico City as they can. Encourage them to include all the factors that contribute to the situation.
Begin the in-class portion of this activity by discussing the importance of scale. For example, you can point out that an understanding of current and possible future environmental problems is critical to the planet’s sustainability. Therefore understanding how human actions, no matter how small, affect the natural environment is the first step. This is where the importance of scale comes into play. For the purposes of this activity, we suggest a scale continuum along the following lines: individual, community, metropolitan area, nation, international, globe. In addition, you may also wish to discuss the commonly used framework of local scale and global scale. Defining these terms can stimulate a discussion in and of itself -- i.e., is "local" a community? a household? Can we "fix" a definition to scale? What other levels of scale may lie between individual and global?.
Divide the class into groups of two or three students and ask them to sort the causes and effects of air pollution in Mexico City by scale, using the proposed individual-global framework (or another framework of your choosing). Let them know that they might not have responses for each level.
After five to ten minutes, ask the students to share their responses with the class and to explain why they chose the things that they did. List their responses on the chalkboard or on an overhead transparency. (See Answers to Activities for an example.) Note that the causes and effects are often related in a reciprocal or cyclical fashion (i.e., an effect can also be a cause for a secondary effect, and so on).
Once you have the list, encourage students to think of the ways that scale can be helpful in understanding the human dimensions of global change. Use the following questions to help guide the discussion:
| Activity 1.4: Visualizing Urban Landscapes: First Impressions of a City |
Goals
Students make connections between the general processes of urbanization
and their effects on the historical, social, economic, and cultural configuration
of a particular place.
Skills
Tasks
In this activity, students begin to build an understanding of one Latin
American city focusing specifically on images of the urban landscape. Instead
of writing a traditional research paper on this topic, students present
the results of their research in a poster format.
Begin by allowing students to select the city they would like to research. Post a list of several cities (make sure they are prominent enough to have sufficient information on them in the library) and let students sign up for the city and group of their choice. On the day that groups are chosen, provide a copy of the suggested reading on making posters (Vujakovic 1995) and suggest that students read it before they meet with their group. Encourage them to consider Vujakovic’s thorough and insightful suggestions. Lastly, suggest that students assign tasks within their group based on their own skills and interests in order to complete their poster by the due date.
In their posters, students should include items that show the geographic location and land use patterns of the city. They should also find ways to illustrate how the process of urbanization has affected the absolute size, population density, and living conditions of the city. Their posters should convey an image of what it is like to visit, live, and/or work in the city. Give students an idea of how the posters will be graded (i.e., requiring maps, tables/graphs, clear and explanatory writing, visual appeal, etc.).
The following criteria are provided in the student worksheet and should be used to evaluate students’ work:*
The poster must:
Remind students that size/space considerations limit the amount of information that can be displayed on a poster. The information they find doesn’t need to be extensive, but should be concise enough for the audience to get a sense of what is happening in this city.
The groups will probably require some meeting time during class in order to keep everyone on track. From the start, however, let them know this project will require outside-class meeting time. Depending upon class size and time constraints, you can ask students to bring drafts of their posters to class and invite students to move from poster to poster giving constructive criticism to their classmates. Students can display final posters in the classroom or in an end-of-semester departmental poster session/party.
This activity is suggested early in this module because it provides students with a particular context (i.e., a particular city) within which to place the concepts and issues that will be addressed later in the module. Activity 3.4 of this module contains a similar activity. If time allows, you can compare the posters from both activities, one representing an initial and surface-level impression of the cities and the other capturing a more in-depth understanding of the underlying processes, life stories, and local-global linkages of the urban experience in a particular city. Or, rather than assign both activities separately, you can combine Activity 1.4 and Activity 3.4 in a long-term project culminating in a poster symposium (as suggested in Activity 3.4).