Land Use Lesson 8 : Investigating Land Use, Water, and Air Relationships

In Michigan, the Governor has taken steps to improve land use decisions. “Smart Growth” is one way. Three methods of “Smart Growth” are:

1. Preserve farmland and open space.

2. Preserve important environmental areas.

3. Have mixed land uses in the community.

Divide the class into four groups. Use the Michigan’s Land, Air, and Water poster as the model of a Michigan community. Inform the students of the following:

During the next five years, the population of the city on the poster will add 4000 people. Nearly 1000 new residential homes will be needed. The task for your groups is to make recommendations for the new homes, but also to follow the “Smart Growth” guidelines.

Study the poster. Develop a plan for where new houses should be built. Use self-adhesive notes to show the houses.

Give each group of students six self-adhesive notes of the same color. Each group should have a different color. Instruct students to draw house symbols on the self-adhesive notes. Then have one student from each group place their group’s “housing” development on the large Michigan’s Land, Air and Water poster where they decided the development should occur. Each person in the group should present one part of the group’s recommendation to the class using “Smart Growth” principles to explain their plan. Provide time for each group to present their plan.

Students should write their answers to the following questions on the Comparing Land Use, Air, and Water Assessment handout:

How do the new individuals in the community impact land use? Water quality? Air quality?

How can these impacts be reduced?

Group discussion is an important part of the small group work in this lesson. However, the teacher may want to review the scoring guide prior to the group work in order to provide students information about how scoring will be done. The students may be assessed during their group work using the scoring guide that is part of this lesson.