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PlayOwl

Geography · Grade 8

Urban Systems and Resource Decisions

Cities are systems that take in water, food and energy and send out goods, waste and emissions. Learners map the zones and functions of cities, measure a city's resource flows, and examine how real cities made hard choices — Cape Town's response to its 2018 water crisis, Curitiba's bus system and Copenhagen's cycling network. They finish by using a weighted decision matrix to recommend a resource decision for a growing city.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 105 minutes
  • Urban systems check: 10 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, highlight a text, pin a map, pick map regions, match pairs and type a number
See plans Included with Family, Teacher and School plans. Open in PlayOwl

What learners will discover

  • Describe city functions and urban land-use zones and explain how land use changes from the centre outward.
  • Describe a city's resource inputs and outputs and calculate simple urban resource budgets.
  • Evaluate urban transport and land-use choices, such as compact growth, sprawl, public transport and cycling, using evidence.
  • Make and justify an urban resource decision using criteria, weights, data and stakeholder views.

Lessons

  1. How cities are organised 6 steps4 practiceabout 26 min
  2. The city as a system of flows 6 steps4 practiceabout 26 min
  3. Moving people and using land 6 steps4 practiceabout 26 min
  4. Making a resource decision 6 steps3 practiceabout 27 min
  5. Urban systems check 10 questions at the end

Keep exploring

Games to practice with

  • Globe ExplorerSpin a real 3D globe, flip to the flat map, and find continents, oceans and countries.
  • Pin the PlanetDrag the pin onto wonders, cities and exact latitude and longitude points.
  • Route PlannerFind the shortest way around town, dodge closed roads, and measure trips with a scale bar.

More 8th grade geography

Guide for grown-ups