The conditions conducive for the growth of cities has continuously changed throughout history based on a combination of physical features, technological innovation, and historical events.
Through a problem solving exercise that involves students selecting an ideal site for placing a new city at different time periods and justifying their decisions, this particular lesson will provide an opportunity for students to research and reason through concrete factors that have plausibly mattered in shaping the development of cities and urbanization in the past and present. Students also practice using an atlas and online resources to research relevant information about the world and buttress their arguments. After drawing their own conclusions, students also engage with and learn the perspectives of geographers on this very same "puzzle" that they solved.
This assignment can serve as an immersive introduction to a course module focused on cities/urbanization or be used as a segue to discussing the topic of cities in particular regions (e.g. South, Southeast, and East Asia). The activities take around 90 minutes to complete. It can also be extended with additional assignment. I use it with high school students in my junior Human and Region geography course and have observed that the problem-solving nature of the activity motivates student curiosity and in the process they enhance their knowledge of different geographical events and processes throughout history.
Part one - 60 minutes
Students are divided into teams of four/five students and provided with atlases and a worksheet that includes instructions on the activity and the different time periods in which they need to propose the placement of new cities. To emphasize the "puzzle" aspect of the challenge and in the process mobilize student curiosity, it would be beneficial to mention that at the end of the exercise, students will learn how geographers have engaged with similar questions.
The instructions state: Consider different physical features (e.g. rivers, bodies of water, mountain ranges, resources, climate, ecosystem, etc…) and human factors (e.g. technology, transportation, common practices, historical events and developments, etc…) that would have been important for supporting economic and population growth in a city at different time periods. For each time period, choose a specific site on the world map that would have been an ideal location to start a new city and then EXPLAIN why you chose that site. To facilitate your decisions, you may research relevant information by using an atlas or checking reliable sources online.
The time periods include: 10000 BC, 1500 AD, 1850, 1950, and 2018
It may be necessary for the teacher to steer students in particular directions if students are struggling. After around 45 minutes, the class can discuss the different student responses and reasons behind those choices. Possible areas of discussion may include the significance of access to the ocean/rivers, the changing role of particular resources (e.g. access to coal or natural gas) at different time periods, the importance of transportation links (e.g. railroad access in 1850, highway access in 1950, or proximity to an airport in 2018), and historical events (e.g. being able to benefit from the industrial revolution, avoiding carnage of conflicts). Part two - 30 minutes
Following the class discussion, this video from Wendover Productions can provide a platform for further analysis and engagement on the topic. Students should take additional notes on the worksheet on the factors that have shaped the location of cities. Upon learning that Dhaka, despite now being one of the poorest cities in the world, was viewed as once holding an ideal location for a city, it also provides an opportunity to discuss the underlining reasons for that claim and also potential explanations for why the city didn't develop into a wealthy metropolis. Indeed, I use this topic as a transition into a homework assignment that involves students examining the rise of Dhaka as a rapidly growing megacity and the challenges that it is facing compared to other major cities. In the subsequent lesson, students examine the rise of megacities with a case study focus on Dhaka. The materials for that assignment will be included in a future post.