Sustainable Cities Lab

Sustainable Cities Lab

Grades: 4+
Duration: 45 minutes

Available Times: 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 12 p.m. on school field trip operating days

*Start and end times may be flexible. Please speak to the Group Reservations specialist when booking.
Concepts/Skills: City planning, sustainability, trade-offs, trial and error experimentation

 

Student engineers work in teams to design and test their own approach to creating a sustainable city.

Lab Guide

Design a robust learning experience by selecting resources from this guide that fit the needs of your students. Reinforce learning before, after and even during your visit by diving deeper into some of the science and engineering concepts.

Lab-Related Activities

Lessons marked with an orange gear icon address engineering within the Next Generation Science Standards.

Connecting with Climate

Grades 6-12

Explore how to problem-solve when approaching large-scale, multidimensional issues like climate change.

Lesson: 90 minutes

Responsible Reservoirs

Grades 5-8

Play a game that shows the complicated cause and effect relationship involved in major environmental decisions.  

Activity: 20+ minutes

Planet Protectors

Grades 3-12

Students work together to create a Public Service Announcement (PSA) which educates others about protecting our planet.

Lesson: 120 minutes

Career Exploration Mosaic

Grades 6-12

Students will create a mosaic that represents their current selves and future career aspirations, then explore careers and opportunities that align with their interests and goals.

Lesson: 75 minutes

Careers in Sustainability

Grades 4-12

Review these career profiles to get a snapshot of the variety of professions that support environmental issues.

Activity: 15+ minutes

Vocabulary Choice Board

Grades K-12

Vocabulary activities to pair with one of our labs or other STEM activities.

Lesson: 20-30 min

Sustainable Cities Lab

Exhibit Connections

Make connections between learning from the lab and the exhibits and programs found in The Tech Interactive’s galleries. For more exhibit connections, see the Lab Guide above.

  • Solve for Earth

    The Solve for Earth Exhibit at The Tech Interactive creates a space where we can discuss as a community how to live sustainably and reduce the impacts of climate change. Solve for Earth looks at the whole picture: where we live, what we eat, how we move and more. Students can dive into a specific issue they are passionate about or look around the gallery to get the whole story.

    Learn More

  • Balance of Power

    Students will play an electrical grid simulation game to juggle power generation and consumption. They will be tasked with shifting from consumer to producer and convert an antiquated grid to a smart grid.

  • Community Voices

    At this story-sharing exhibit about the impacts of climate change, students will see and hear stories from real people in the Bay Area. Students will see how communities nearby are being impacted and how everyday people are addressing it.

  • Sea Level Rise and Sea Level Rise Future Solutions

    At this pair of exhibits, students will get an in-depth look at future sea level rise and how it will impact different areas around the world. They will then become the engineers as they  imagine and draw ways to help protect areas from sea level rise.

Standards Connections

Next Generation Science Standards  
Grades Engineering Design
 Earth and Space Science Disciplinary Core Ideas Crosscutting Concepts Science and Engineering Practices
4 3-5-ETS1-1 3-5-ETS1-2 3-5-ETS1-3 4-ESS3-1 ESS3.A ETS1.A ETS1.B ETS1.C Cause and Effect 1, 3, 6, 8
5 3-5-ETS1-1 3-5-ETS1-2 3-5-ETS1-3 5-ESS3-1 ESS3.C ETS1.A ETS1.B ETS1.C Systems and System Models 1, 3, 6, 8
6-8 MS-ETS1-1 MS-ETS1-2 MS-ETS1-3 MS-ESS3-3 MS-ESS3-5 ESS3.C ESS3.D ETS1.B ETS1.C Cause and Effect Stability and Change 1, 4, 6, 7
9-12 HS-ETS1-1 HS-ETS1-2 HS-ETS1-3 HS-ETS1-4 HS-ESS3-3 HS-ESS3-4 HS-ESS3-6 ESS2.D ESS3.C ESS3.D ETS1.A ETS1.B ETS1.C Stability and Change System and System Models 1, 5, 6