Hey everyone-- I coach a robotics team of 4th-5th graders where students are required to also complete a free-form engineering research project and it appears likely that next year's challenge will focus on problems in cities.

I have some resources already: I have mentors I can bring in (my father served on my town's planning commission for 15 years and I know city planning staff). I have my city's General Plan and have a contrasting map of the general area around their school. I have also come across John Martoni's excellent Metropolis curriculum. I'm also looking at the board game Between Two Cities.

I think planning is very difficult for kids to understand. Even being around the planning process my whole life, there's a certain inevitability of driving down a street that "that's just how this is." Kids tend towards even greater blind acceptance of their environment. Any suggestions on how to make these problems "real" for them?

It doesn't need to be strictly work aimed at 4th-5th grade: the kids are smart and have a pretty high reading level, etc. But more than anything I'm looking for easily digested work (articles, short film) that helps make the problems of city design, development, and redevelopment real.

Thanks to everyone!