McMahon City Planners
Over the past two months, sixth graders at McMahon Elementary School have been working on designing public parks for the city of Lewiston. Students were able to experience much of the same process that a city planner would need to go through for a park plan to be approved for development.
Students began by brainstorming ideas for their ultimate dream park. If the only limit was their imagination (and safety precautions) what would they like to see in a city park?
Students then began working in small groups to combine their ideas into one park proposal. Since the same amount of land was available for the park, this section of the project required students to practice many aspects of group dynamics, including positive communication, active listening, and compromisation.
After groups had settled on a park plan, they had to present their plan to Ms. Laura, who assumed the role of the Director of Planning and Code Enforcement for this project. Once their plan received the stamp of approval, each group created a presentation to share with their class to showcase their plan.
Their hard work showed!
—
This material is based upon the work of 4-H Community Central Maine, a project supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States (U.S.) Department of Agriculture, through a cooperative agreement with The University of Maine under award number 2014-41520-22235
General information about the CYFAR grant program can be accessed online at:
https://nifa.usda.gov/program/children-youth-and-families-risk-cyfar
For further information about the CYFAR-funded project highlighted in this publication, contact:
CYFAR Project Name: 4-H Community Central Maine
Principal Investigator: Kristy L Ouellette
Email Address: kristy.ouellette@maine.edu