The City Science Mural Web site
offers a collection of online learning experiences and
materials for all ages and audiences, with a special focus
on kids grades K-6. Because reaching and serving even
the K-6 age range with one Web interactive or classroom
lesson would be impossible, the site offers a menu of
experiences and teaching materials that teachers and parents
can choose from to enrich their students' learning.
Due to the relatively recent popularity of using Web-based
technologies at home and in the classroom to support student
learning, many researchers have been taking a closer look
at the effects of learning media on young children. A
recent review of all publicly available research on the
topic by the Markle Foundation (which is pro-technology),
Growing Up With Interactive Media (2000), recognizes
that we have much to learn and proposes a "national research
agenda to support developmentally based research on the
uses, design, and effects of interactive media" on children.
The Online Learning Team of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum/Chicago Academy of Sciences
has more than 5 years of experience bringing Web-based interactive
learning (Webcasts with real-time chat, online interactives, technology workshops) about
science and the environment to K-12 students—in their classrooms and computer labs and at the Nature Museum.
Based on this experience, the Nature Museum recommends
that all K-6 computer-based learning occur in the company
of an adult. Museum staff have found that adult interaction
and engagement with online materials and the questions
they raise are essential if student learning goals for
Web-based experiences are to be met. So, parents and teachers,
please take a few minutes to sit down with your kids and
the City Science Mural Web site. With your help, technology
really can make learning about science and the environment
fun and memorable.
Included below is the first in a series of formal lessons
for use in school classrooms or computer labs and at home.
Also included are some simpler experiential activities,
many of which can be completed in 10-30 minutes.
Classroom Lessons
“Zoom”
Around Town
Experiential Activities
Sort
It Out
1. Ask your students to point to or make a list (on a piece
of paper or on a chalk board) of all the objects in the mural of
a certain type (e.g., wood, metal, growing, invented,
forms of water, transportation, food, clothing, shelter).
2. Help younger students group objects by referring to
the mural items list on the Mural
Objects page.
3. Help your students make connnections among the groups of objects by discussing how they
are related. For example, when the trees are cut down in the forest, the wood is used to
build residential homes, to make wooden brooms and telephone poles, and to produce the morning newspaper.
I Can See the Systems
1. Ask your students to identify different types of systems in the mural (e.g., water, energy, transportation) (for older
students you can also have them list all the items in these systems).
2. Discuss with your students how these systems enable modern living in cities that are (typically) physically distant
from the natural resources (wood, minerals, water, energy sources) that support them.
Personal Stories
1. Have your students pick a person in the mural and write a story about who they are and what
they are doing.
2. When helpful, have your students do some additional
reading and research about what the people are doing.
3. Have your students E-mail
their stories to the Nature Museum and we may post them
online.
How I Used the Mural Today
1. Have your students choose three objects from the mural that they use in everyday life.
2. Ask your students to write a story about how they use the objects in
their everyday lives.
3. Share the stories with other students or kids in the family. Ask them to note how the stories are different.
4. Ask your students to E-mail
their stories to the Nature Museum and we may post them
online.
Rearrange the Mural
1. Print the
mural for your students and cut out (or have
them cut out) some of the items in the mural.
2. Make a new mural collage of your own. Feel free to add original drawings of your own or photos of related
items from magazines or the newspaper.
3. If you have the technology, scan your mural collage,
save it as a jpeg file, and E-mail
it to us—we may post it to this Web site.
"It Lends Itself to Puzzling"
1. Print a copy of the mural for each of your students.
2. Cut the mural up into 4 to 20 simple or complex (depending on age) shaped pieces.
3. Ask your students to put together the puzzle of the City Science Mural.
4. Discuss with your students why certain objects are next to each other in the mural. Are they
related? Are there stories to be told from how the pieces go together?
Make Your Own Mural
1. Ask your students to cut pictures from magazines that relate to themes in the City Science
Mural: water, energy, transporation, food, people and their jobs in the environment, animals, etc.
2. Have your students make environmental murals of their own.
3. If you have the technology, scan your mural collage,
save it as a jpeg file, and E-mail
it to us—we may post it to this Web site.
My Neighborhood Mural
1. Ask your students to take a picture of a mural in the local neighborhood, looking for
science, technology, and/or environmental themes in the mural.
2. Have your students write a story about the mural, focusing on its similarities or
differences to the City Science Mural.
3. E-mail
to the Nature Museum your mural story (and, if you have
the technology, scan your mural photo—noting the artist
and the date painted—and save it as a jpeg file and E-mail
it to us). We may post the photo and story about your
neighborhood mural to this Web site.
Create A Community Mural
1. Have your students make an science/environment-themed mural for your school or community about issues
important to your neighborhood. Be sure the students have the support and help of multiple teachers
and parents. Steps will include finding a site for the mural, getting permission to paint
the space, and working with local artists on the project.
2. If a permanent mural is not possible, consider creating a temporary mural on butcher paper
to hang at an indoor location.
3. As you do your project, learn about murals
as an art form: what approaches (perspective, color, size
contrasts, objects from different time eras) were employed
in the City Science Mural and how can you use them as
an artist to make your own mural?
4. Once your mural is complete, E-mail
a picture and story about it to the Nature Museum—we may
post it on this Web site.
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