Ongoing Initiatives
Mapping Buried Treasures & Future Visions
Big Shoulders Fund
The school-wide project will involve 1,634 fifth grade students representing each of the seventy-six Big Shoulders Fund elementary schools Reflecting the fact that
Beyond Burham Class and Exhibition
Chicago Academy for the Arts
How can Burnham’s vision for Chicago inspire young artists today? Throughout the 2008-2009 school year, The Chicago Academy for the Arts’ Urban Design class, an elective for 11th and 12th grade students, will focus on the Plan of Chicago. [MORE]
Fairchild Challenge: Make No Little Plans
Chicago Botanic Garden
The Make No Little Plans photo journalism contest invites teens from throughout metropolitan
Girl Scout Sustainability Badges
Chicago Botanic Garden
The Chicago Botanic Garden will collaborate with the Girl Scouts of Chicago to develop a new series of sustainability badges relevant to Burnham Plan goals. The Garden will offer those badges through our existing Girl Scout programs involving more than 5,000 youth. [MORE]
VOISE Academy School Wide Project
Chicago Public Schools
This school-wide project will involve the history of the Burnham Plan and how it has affected Chicago: including growth, architecture and tourism. It will also examine how hosting the Olympics will bring changes to Chicago. (School Year 2008-2009) [MORE]
Burnham Weekend Camps & Girl Space
Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana
Burnham Weekend Camps and Girl Space program, which hope to integrate the Metro Joe curriculum into after-school programming, are under development. [MORE]
Burnham Centennial Book of Service
Mercy Home for Boys and Girls
Mercy Home youth will partner with numerous local organizations to provide compassionate service to less advantaged Chicagoans and to beautify the city. Each quarter of service during the Centennial will debut a chapter written in the Book of Service that will be compiled and presented to Mayor Daley for the City of Chicago. (Summer- December 2009) [MORE]
Visions for the Future
Illinois Institute of Technology
The Systems Course at IIT's Institute of Design will charge five teams of graduate design students to project the future for Chicago and, by extension, major cities around the world. The teams will explore the new and powerful forces, both destructive and constructive, that confront cities and society.
[MORE]
Virtual Burnham Initiative
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College’s Virtual Burnham Initiative (VBI) will transform key elements of the 1909 Plan of Chicago into 3-D models accessible through the ever-popular Google Earth. [MORE]
The Built Environment: Hands-on Activities for Kids
Chicago Children's Museum
A family-friendly curriculum to introduce elementary engineering and architectural concepts will be available on CCM’s website in 2009. The Built Environment includes easy-to-follow instructions and sample videos to allow a facilitator to involve families (with children 5 to 8 years of age) in engaging hands-on activities that spark interest and expand knowledge. The goal is to enable children and adults to forge a deeper understanding and appreciation of the built environment in which they live. [MORE]
Making History: Making Changes
Chicago Metro History Education Center
The 8th grade unit will draw from the Metro Joe curriculum to help students apply the vision of Burnham to Chicago today. Students will learn how the metropolitan area is connected, why planning is essential to progress, how decisions can influence the future, what they can do to influence progress in their community, and that civic engagement has an impact. [MORE]
The Wolf Lake Watershed Meets Daniel Burnham
Association for the Wolf Lake Initiative
A poster contest will ask third graders, among other youth, to depict how the
Art of the Chicago Landscape Residency
Art Resources in Teaching
This 6-session program will celebrate Daniel Burnham’s plan for
Undergraduate and Graduate Classes
DePaul University
DePaul currently has more than 30 courses that are incorporating material from the Burnham Plan into their curriculums for the 2008-09 academic year. Many courses in the "Discover Chicago" program for first year students. In addition, DePaul will collaborate with faculty at UIC to jointly promote several specially designed graduate level courses. In conjunction with UIC we are creating a 'resource list' for instructors. (August 2008 - December 2009)
Courses for Law Students and Attorneys
John Marshall Law School
John Marshall Law School's byline “At Work in Chicago,” provides tremendous opportunities to include a perspective on the Burnham Plan in a variety of law school classes and curriculum. During the Academic Year 2008-2009, the Law School is offering 15+ courses related to the Burnham Plan. [MORE]
Chicago: Choices and Changes
Burnham Plan Centennial Committee
The 3rd grade unit, piloted in the spring of 2008, includes five lessons that introduce students to community-building principles: people make choices, people make changes that affect how people live and work now and in the future; each person’s choice can make a difference. [MORE]
Burnham Plan History Fair Awards
Burnham Plan Centennial Committee
Every year 2,000 middle and high school teachers and students participate in the Chicago Metro History Fair which promotes primary course research and historical inquiry into Metropolitan Chicago. In order to encourage students to explore the rich legacy and impact of the Plan of Chicago, the Centennial Committee created a cash award program to recognize high school projects related to the Plan.
Chicago: City of Possibilities, Plans, Progress
Burnham Plan Centennial Committee
Chicago: City of Possibilities, Plans, Progress provides materials that offer a starting point to making the city itself part of your curriculum. As your students explore their city we hope that they will understand their own ability to change their communities and make a different in shaping Chicago's future. [MORE]
John Marshall Law School Burnham Centennial Student Writing Competition
John Marshall Law School
In 1909, Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett collaborated with the Commercial Club of Chicago and others to create a new plan for the greater Chicago region. One hundred years later, now, the challenges of increased congestion and pollution, loss of public lands, and growing disparity of wealth, give added urgency to Burnham's call to act regionally, comprehensively, and boldly. [MORE]
Metro Joe Regional Learning Project
Chicago Metropolis 2020
The National Geographic Education Foundation is supporting a pilot project conducted by Chicago Metropolis 2020 and the Geographic Society of Chicago to engage middle school students in Chicago Public Schools in learning about the Chicago Region. The project will culminate in a Regional Summit in which students will display large scale maps indicating how they think the region should develop in the future. [MORE]
Bold Plans Big Dreams Education Initiative
Burnham Plan Centennial Committee
The Burnham Plan Centennial Committee, with the generous support of the Polk Bros. Foundation, is collaborating with the DePaul Center for Urban Education and Chicago Public Schools to transform the way children learn about their communities, enrich their understanding of the region and engage a new generation in planning for our future. [MORE]
Millennium Park: Bold Planners. Big Dreamers. You.
Burnham Plan Centennial Committee
This do-it-yourself field trip guide to Millennium Park contains nine hands-on activities for elementary students with an emphasis on the city infrastructure. Features include the park’s history, maps and attractions, including Cloud Gate (“The Bean”), Pritzker Pavilion, the Lurie Garden, Crown Fountain and the underground train station. Millennium Park provides a lively, modern illustration of many of the themes of the Plan of Chicago— the importance of open space, transportation infrastructure and architectural integrity. [MORE]
Educators Resource Guide - The Burnham Plan Centennial: Bold Plans. Big Dreams
The Bold Plans Big Dreams Educators Resource Guide is a collection of resources that facilitates incorporating the study of metropolitan Chicago into daily teaching. The guide includes clickable links to and PDFs of lessons, activities and multiple educational resources as well as images presented in PowerPoint format and as digital files.
Burnham’s Plan of Chicago provides many points of entry for studying a variety of topics across a variety of academic disciplines. The major themes covered by the study of Burnham’s Plan include: [MORE]
Letters to the Mayor
Culminating a learning experience based upon the new Chicago: Choices and Changes unit, more than 2,200 third-graders from 78 schools wrote letters to and sent Mayor Daley their dreams and plans for the city. [MORE]
Bold Plans Big Dreams Demonstration Schools
Burnham Plan Centennial Committee
Recognizing an exceptional commitment to make “Chicago progress” central to the Chicago Public Schools’ literacy, social sciences, and social emotional learning curriculum, 32 Chicago Public Schools were competitively selected to participate in a year-long Bold Plans. Big Dreams. Demonstration Schools program that will benefit their students and schools, and serve as models for others throughout the city and region.
Demonstration School Benefits [MORE]