{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/67236"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/67236","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"The community as text : using planning as a vehicle for interdisciplinary education","abstract":"Many American schools fail to teach students about the built environment. However, there is both scholarly and anecdotal evidence that using students' communities as a teaching tool is an effective method for increasing student engagement and increased knowledge retention, as well as improving their knowledge transfer and higher-level thinking skills. In this thesis, I argue that schools are missing an educational opportunity to by failing to incorporate students' neighborhoods into curricula in a sustained and interdisciplinary way. I argue that planning is an ideal vehicle for interdisciplinary education, but is also a worthwhile topic as an end in itself, teaching students about republicanism and civic engagement at a local level. This thesis looks at three programs that teach students about the built environment, and then offer a case study of how a more sustained program could implemented in an eighth-grade classroom in Dorchester, Massachusetts.","abstract_html":"Many American schools fail to teach students about the built environment. However, there is both scholarly and anecdotal evidence that using students' communities as a teaching tool is an effective method for increasing student engagement and increased knowledge retention, as well as improving their knowledge transfer and higher-level thinking skills. In this thesis, I argue that schools are missing an educational opportunity to by failing to incorporate students' neighborhoods into curricula in a sustained and interdisciplinary way. I argue that planning is an ideal vehicle for interdisciplinary education, but is also a worthwhile topic as an end in itself, teaching students about republicanism and civic engagement at a local level. This thesis looks at three programs that teach students about the built environment, and then offer a case study of how a more sustained program could implemented in an eighth-grade classroom in Dorchester, Massachusetts.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ritchie, Frances C. (Frances Cunningham)"],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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