Sustainable Cities Challenge Project
What is a sustainable city? How do we design one? Let’s build a scale model of our design!
The Sustainable Cities Challenge Project involved Years 5, 6, 7 and 8 students from two Victorian Department of Education Innovations and Excellence Clusters of schools in an exciting project to research, plan, design and build a scale model of a ‘future Sustainable City’ or ‘Sustainable House’.
‘Sustainable city by the Bay’ Yr 6 -Southmoor Primary School, 2006
What the Sustainable Cities Challenge Project Provided
The Sustainable Cities Challenge Project ran in 2007 and provided:
- Teacher Professional Development on the Sustainable Cities Challenge and enquiry-based learning facilitated by Gould League, with money available for CRT
- Units of Work for Level 4 and 5 that supported education for sustainability and integrated teaching and learning across mathematics, design, creativity and technology, communication and thinking skills and personal and social learning domains of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS)
- Information and support on planning, architecture and engineering from local council officers and RMIT University social science and planning students
- Email and telephone support from Gould League throughout the project.
- A fully developed and piloted project with case studies and curriculum materials available to other schools in the future.
Sustainable Cities Challenge Project Objectives
- To develop an effective model for integrated science, technology and mathematics learning together with interdisciplinary and personal and social learning, in the context of a real community issue
- To engage young people (middle years students) in an authentic learning experience that will enable them to develop valuable skills and knowledge, to think creatively and to build links with their local community and with higher education institutions
- To help students to learn about and for sustainability, specifically sustainable urban design and how to actively contribute to planning for a sustainable future
- To encourage sharing between teachers/clusters
- To encourage partnerships between schools and their community
- To encourage interest and support between science, technology and mathematics disciplines and education
‘Sustainable Estate’ Yr 6- Southmoor Primary School, 2006
Project Partners
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Southmoor Primary School
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Princes Hill Secondary College
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RMIT University Department of Social Science and Planning
The Sustainables Cities Challenge Project was based on work developed and piloted by Southmoor Primary School and Princes Hill Secondary College in 2004, and integrated learning in mathematics, technology and science and develop community links with local government and universities, in line with the Victorian Essential Learning Standards.
Funding Partners
This project was developed as part of the Australian School Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics Project funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training as a part of the Boosting Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics Teaching (BISTMT) Programme.”
Project Participants
This pilot project involved teachers and students from classes 5, 6, 7 and 8 of schools participating in the Cheltenham and Williamstown Schools Innovation and Excellence Clusters. 
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