Making Sense of Place Film Series A documentary film and educational outreach project launched by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Making Sense of Place – Phoenix: The Urban Desert

Lessons for Environmental Science, Grades 7-12

Welcome
Introduction to Project
How to Use the film in Your Classroom
What You Need to Teach the Lesson
How to Contact the Lesson Writers

Welcome

This material contains all the lesson material you will need to teach any of the lessons associated with the film, as well as helpful tips on how to best use the film in your classroom

This one-hour documentary explores urban growth and change in and around Phoenix, Arizona. In only half a century, Phoenix has expanded from a small desert town to the fifth largest city in the country. The film seeks to educate students on the connection between science and the environment, and the impact of humans on the natural environment.

The film aptly covers many environmental science strands nationally as well as regionally. While Phoenix is the case study in this film, the issues covered in this film are applicable to many other cities and regions across the country, regardless of the size of the town or city. The lessons are designed to be adapted to the region, city or town where the lesson is being taught.

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Introduction to Project

Making Sense of Place – Phoenix: The Urban Desert will expose students to the issues of growth and urban development and the environment. This one hour documentary raises the awareness of the urban development processes in American cities in general, and Phoenix in particular.

This film is a timely and relevant resource for educators in the field of Science. The film’s many themes compliment classroom lessons in the areas of environmental studies, ecology, science inquiry and science in personal and social perspective. The film and lessons are appropriate for grades 7-12. The lessons have background information, lesson activities and reproducible worksheets when necessary.

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How to Use the Film in Your Classroom

It is suggested that the film be shown in two half hour segments. The lessons which accompany the film are in a printable PDF and contain all the necessary documents you may need to teach the lesson as it is written. Each lesson has been written so as to be adapted to a different city or region. It is suggested that area specific information be found to augment the activities in the lesson.

Each of the lessons comes with an extension enabling you to either teach the film as a whole unit or as a short topical specific version. The lessons are quite comprehensive, yet flexible, giving teachers enough material for 3-7 days of classroom work. We encourage you to tailor each lesson to your own classroom schedule.

In order for the students to follow the film and its concepts, video worksheets have been created for middle and high school. The middle school version has simple tracking questions to accompany the film, allowing students to follow along. The high school version contains tracking questions as well as higher order thought questions that will contribute to a classroom discussion. It is recommended that the video be watched with the closed-captioning on in order to aid the students in completing the video worksheet. Alphabetical and chronological vocabulary lists have been created to accompany the film and assist with unfamiliar words and terminology.

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What You Need to Teach the Lesson

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you will need to download and install it to open these documents. Download Acrobat Reader here.

Vocabulary Lists
List 1, Alphabetical (77 kb)
List 2, Chronological (83 kb)

Video Worksheets
Video Worksheet with answer key grades 7-8 (567 kb)
Video Worksheet with answer key grades 9-12 (565 kb)

Lessons, Grades 7-8
Are We Living on a Heat Island? (94 kb)
How Much Water Do You Use? (598 kb)

Lessons, Grades 9-12
Bringing Ecology Home: Helping Students Make Sense of Urban Growth Issues (254 kb)
Watering the Desert: Water Management in Metropolitan Phoenix (494 kb)

Optional
Script for the film (233 kb)

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How to Contact the Lesson Writers

In partnership with the Arizona Science Teachers Association, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy collaborated with three teacher consultants to write the four lessons. If you would like to contact a writer of a specific lesson, or have questions regarding the film or the lessons, please email makingsenseofplace@makingsenseofplace.org.

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