A Fresh Look for the City of Holland
​By:  Brent Rowe

Project at a Glance :

This project allows students to meet 6th grade civic standards and creates a chance to help design a project in the Holland community.

Driving Question:
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How can the City of Holland change a public area to better serve its residents?              

Standards:

• Civics stds:  6 - P4.21 & P4.2.3

Team / Culture Building:

• ​Allow students to choose between four different areas of Holland.  Students will rank their choices 1 - 4 and then the teacher will form the groups allowing student voice and choice.​
• Developing community norms, build empathy through studying past community projects, and developing a growth mindset through realizing mistakes are made.​

Entry Event:

• Visit Matt Urban Park, observe Downtown Holland signage, and the City of Holland Firehouse. Invite a City of Holland employee will join our tour and introduce the driving question for each location.

Stakeholders:

• City of Holland

• Holland Employees 
• Citizens of Holland 
• Visitors to Holland  

Empathy Building:

• Using Stormboard students will create an Empathy Map focused on how parks make us feel? Who uses parks? Do some people feel uncomfortable using parks?​

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

•  Investigate how the City of Holland decides to change a public space. 
• Show a slideshow of how a City of Holland space was changed.
• Write questions/ interview City of Holland representatives on what they want to change in the city and why.
• Read articles about parks that have been redone. What was done well? 
• Explore budgets. How does the city decide how much to spend?

Incubation:

• ​Brainstorm 100 ideas/ways to improve a city site - post ideas on  Jamboard​.
• Students create Mood Board illustrating what they learned during their investigations.

• Think, Pair, Share activity to flush out ideas on sticky notes.​​​​.

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Solution Building:

• NUF Test
• Post results on Jamboard and begin narrowing solution ideas
• 100 Dollar Test ​

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Critique and Revision: 

• Present ideas to high school students for feedback via a survey
• Teacher checkpoints along the way

Authentic Audience:

• City of Holland planner
• City of Holland representatives
• Black River Public School administrator
• BRPS high school student representatives

Final Presentation:

• Groups of students will give 5 minute presentations (2.5 minutes in the form of either a creative story, pitch, skit, etc., followed by a 2.5 minute informational talk, followed by a 3 minute question and answer session. ​

Reflection and Feedback:

• Reflection will include surveys from other students and authentic audience members. 
• Students will a reflection paper and respond on Flipgrid.
• Write thank you notes to authentic audience members.​

Click here to follow the teachers Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:
Brent Rowe teaches Middle School history at Black River Public School in Holland, MI.  

     "Giving students the chance to think, plan, and implement an idea brings the classroom alive . . ."