Mapping Liveable Cities

Overview

This first lesson in Shaping Sustainable Canterbury introduces urbanisation as the growth and concentration of people, housing, services and employment in towns and cities. Students locate Christchurch and surrounding Canterbury settlements, begin geographical inquiry questions, and identify features of a liveable and sustainable urban community.

Learning intentions

• WALT define urbanisation using geographical language.
• WALT explain why people, housing, services and employment become concentrated in urban places.
• WALT use maps to locate Christchurch and Canterbury settlements.
• WALT develop inquiry questions about urban growth and sustainability.

Success criteria

• I can describe urbanisation in my own words.
• I can give reasons why people and activities concentrate in towns and cities.
• I can locate Christchurch and surrounding Canterbury settlements on a map.
• I can write a useful question about making an urban community liveable and sustainable.

Curriculum links

• Identify the challenges created by urban growth using maps, diagrams and graphs.
• Describe the challenges addressed by a sustainable urban initiative in New Zealand.
• Apply geographical data to improve urban areas and evaluate different approaches.
• Consider likely scenarios if cities continue to grow.
• Builds the refreshed curriculum capabilities of inquiry, using evidence, communicating explanations and participating in decisions about places and communities.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Hook: Where would you live? Teacher opens with the urbanisation introduction deck showing a striking aerial comparison of a rural Canterbury landscape and a busy Christchurch urban area, then asks: “Why do people choose to live close together?” Students make an individual prediction, discuss it with a partner, and share one idea.

2. 7–17 min · Build the concept. Teacher introduces the term urbanisation: the increasing proportion of people living in towns and cities, and the processes that cause urban places to grow. Use the same definition and key ideas slides to distinguish urban from rural places and model the four focus factors: people, housing, services and employment. Students complete the definition and add one example to their notes.

3. 17–30 min · Why cities grow. Teacher displays four headings on the causes of urban growth slides and briefly explains push and pull factors, including access to jobs, education, healthcare, shops, transport and social opportunities. In groups of three, students sort possible reasons under the four headings on the urbanisation mapping and inquiry worksheet and justify one choice. Groups report one reason, while the teacher checks that students understand that urbanisation can create both opportunities and challenges.

4. 30–42 min · Locate and interpret. Teacher distributes the urbanisation mapping and inquiry worksheet and uses the Canterbury mapping activity slides to orient students with the South Island, Canterbury, Christchurch, Lyttelton, Rolleston, Rangiora, Kaiapoi and Ashburton. Students label or annotate the map, identify which settlements are closest to Christchurch, and discuss what the pattern of settlement might suggest about transport, employment and services. Circulate and question: “What evidence can you see?” and “What might change if the population grows?”

5. 42–53 min · Liveable and sustainable? Teacher introduces liveable as supporting people’s wellbeing and sustainable as meeting needs while protecting future social, cultural, economic and environmental wellbeing. Display the criteria on the liveability discussion slides. Pairs choose three important features of a liveable, sustainable urban community from the worksheet, then explain their choices using “This matters because…”. Invite several responses, including different perspectives such as young people, kaumātua, commuters and local businesses.

6. 53–60 min · Inquiry launch and exit check. Teacher models a strong geographical inquiry question, such as “How can Christchurch grow while remaining liveable and sustainable?” Students write two possible inquiry questions on the urbanisation mapping and inquiry worksheet, select their strongest question, and complete the exit prompt on the plenary and exit question slide: “Urbanisation happens because… One opportunity or challenge is…”. Collect responses to shape the next lesson.

Resources

• the urbanisation introduction deck
• the urbanisation mapping and inquiry worksheet
• Projector or interactive display
• Class set of atlases or access to printed maps of Canterbury
• Board and markers
• Coloured pencils or highlighters
• A4 paper for group notes

Assessment

• Listen to pair and group explanations for accurate use of urbanisation, urban, rural, liveable and sustainable.
• Check maps for correctly located and labelled Christchurch and surrounding settlements; question students about patterns and evidence.
• Use the written definition, inquiry question and exit response to identify misconceptions and group needs for the next lesson.

Differentiation

• Provide a word bank and sentence starters: “Urbanisation means…”, “People move to cities because…”, and “A liveable city needs…”.
• Support students who need it with a partially labelled map, a completed example and a partner-reading option; allow oral responses before writing.
• For EAL learners, pair key terms with simple icons and concrete examples, and accept labelled diagrams as well as full sentences.
• Extend confident learners by asking them to distinguish between a reason for urban growth and a consequence of urban growth, or to predict one challenge Christchurch may face as it grows.
• Use mixed-readiness groups of three with rotating roles: map reader, evidence finder and reporter.