These resources offer K–12 teachers opportunities for integrating curricula, lessons and activities that connect with the Centennial themes and are aligned with state and national standards for learning into classroom practice. See the Curriculum Guide for tips on how to integrate the Classroom Resources in your school.
Curricula
Polk Bros. Foundation Center for Chicago Education:
Chicago: Choices and Changes, Third Grade Unit and
Chicago: City of Possibilities, Plans, Progress, Eighth Grade Unit
These resources, with student materials in English and Spanish, provide teachers a starting point to make the city itself part of the curriculum. They help students examine Chicago’s planning tradition and encourage young people to participate in making choices and changes today. Aligned with Illinois Learning Standards, the units emphasize literacies and critical thinking—literacy about the city itself, literacies of reading and writing, and critical thinking about the past, present and future. As students explore their city we hope that they will understand their own ability to change their communities as they look toward their own and their community’s future.
Chicago Metropolis 2020: Metro Joe
Like the promoters of Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago, who introduced ideas about great city planning to students through the Wacker Manual, Metro Joe’s Interactive Guide to the Chicago Region, enhances student understanding of the people, geography and development of the Chicago region. Geared toward 7–10th grade students, the lesson plans and activities engage students in exploring their communities and learning how they can shape the future.
Chicago History Museum: Great Chicago Stories
Great Chicago Stories is a suite of twelve powerful historical fiction narratives exploring themes of place, identity, and contested space, inspired by artifacts in the collection of the Chicago History Museum. This award-winning resource for elementary and high school students can support and enhance classroom instruction as well as make valuable connections for students both pre- and post-field trip.
Urban Land Institute: Urban Plan
UrbanPlan is a realistic, engaging, and academically challenging classroom-based, web-supported, 15 class-hour unit for the economics and government curriculum in which high school juniors and seniors learn the public and private sector roles, issues, trade-offs, and economics involved in urban development.
Lesson Plans
Language Arts
Grade 4: Historical Markers [PDF]
This lesson by the Chicago Architecture Foundation is an introduction to studying the homes of significant individuals in our city.
Grades 4–12: Curate an Exhibit
Arrange images by era, architect, or other theme to portray an event or tell a story using the American Memory image collections.
Grades 6–12: Historical Analysis
Analyze different planned environments to determine what decisions developers made and what values their decisions represent using the Historical Analysis activity by American Memory.
Math
Grades 5–8: Erosion: Natural or Unnatural [PDF]
In this experimental lesson by Friends of the Chicago River students explore the impact of development on the erosion of our rivers.
Grades 6–8: Building Big
This flexible collection of fun, simple hands-on activities was developed by WGBH Boston for teaching about the basic physical science of large structures and inspiring the excitement of inquiry learning.
Science
Grade 2: Rooftop Gardens [PDF]
This lesson by the Chicago Architecture Foundation explores how a rooftop garden helps to lower the temperature of a building, and therefore keep the people inside cooler.
Grades 5–8: Building Big
This flexible collection of fun, simple hands-on activities was developed by WGBH Boston for teaching about the basic physical science of large structures and inspiring the excitement of inquiry learning.
Grades 5–8: Erosion: Natural or Unnatural [PDF]
In this experimental lesson by Friends of the Chicago River students explore the impact of development on the erosion of our rivers.
Grades 6–12: What is a Watershed [PDF]
Students will create models of a landscape and test their predictions about the location of rivers and watershed boundaries in this lesson by Friends of the Chicago River.
Grades 7–12: Water Quality Test Explained [PDF]
In this demonstration lesson by Friends of the Chicago Rivers students will understand the 8 tests used to evaluate the quality of our drinking water.
Social Studies
Grade 3: Chicago History
These lessons by CUIP/Chicago WebDocent highlight the history of Chicago’s trails, rails, and waterways from 1800-1900 in stories told by children living at the time.
Grade 4: Historical Markers [PDF]
This lesson by the Chicago Architecture Foundation is an introduction to studying the homes of significant individuals in our city.
Grades 4–8: City Detective: How Many Parks are Needed?
Students identify and observe uses of the existing parks and open spaces in their community and evaluate whether these places meet the needs of residents in this lesson by the American Planning Association.
Grades 5–12: Chicago’s Columbus Park: The Prairie Idealized
In this lesson by the National Park Service, students will examine how the growth of American cities influenced the development and design of public parks, such as Columbus Park in Chicago.
Grades 5–12: Chicago’s Black Metropolis
This lesson by the National Park Service places the historic Black Metropolis in the changing urban pattern of Chicago and helps students identify special historic places in their own community.
Grades 6–12: What is a Watershed? [PDF]
Students will create models of a landscape and test their predictions about the location of rivers and watershed boundaries in this lesson by Friends of the Chicago River.
Grades 6–12: Historical Analysis
Analyze different planned environments to determine what decisions developers made and what values their decisions represent using the Historical Analysis activity by American Memory.
Grades 9–12: City Beautiful Movement
Examine and discuss images from American Memory on the City Beautiful Movement, a reform effort in architecture and urban planning that sought to beautify cities in order to inspire civic and moral virtue.
Educators Resource Guide
The Burnham Plan Centennial:
Bold Plans. Big Dreams
Incorporate the study of metropolitan Chicago into daily teaching with this collection of resources that links to lessons, activities and multiple educational resources across a variety of academic disciplines. [Download PDF or View Program On-Line]
Feature Resources
The Plan of Chicago
The online Encyclopedia of Chicago has a wealth of information including a fully digitized copy of the Burnham Plan.
The Columbian Exposition
Explore Daniel Burnham’s vision of an ideal city with an interactive map of the World’s Fair of 1893.
Who is Metro Joe?
Think you know Chicago and the 'burbs? Play this online game that challenges your knowledge of the Chicago region.
The Burnham Blog
Several articles were written about Centennial education programs throughout 2009 on the Burnham Blog. To read these articles and browse other related posts, click here.
Educational Programs
In and After School (K–16)
Schools and universities throughout the region are developing events and projects during the Burnham Plan Centennial.
Presenting Sponsor for Education
