Activity 1 - What is urbanisation?

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Activity Tasks

1. Think/Pair/Share - What is so good about living in cities? Write down your ideas before sharing with a partner, and then the class. What are the main benefits of living in cities?
2. Read - Examine this worksheet about urbanisation and complete these questions that follow:
   1. What is urbanisation? Define it in own words.
   2. What are megacities? 
   3. What opportunities and challenges do you think megacities provide?
   4. How is ‘urban’ defined?
   5. What does ‘urban population growth’ mean?
   6. In what other ways do geographers study urban growth?
   7. How does city growth link with the concept of ‘development’?
3. Explore - Explore this interactive article from the Guardian about the rise of megacities. Write down 10 facts about megacities from the article.

Activity 2 - Why is urbanisation increasing?

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Activity Tasks

1. Discuss - Why have cities grown so much over the last 70 years? Make a list of reasons. What do you think are the main causes of urbanisation?
2. Analyse - Examine the cards on this worksheet and either organise them into two groups by either cutting them out or colouring them in. Group one should match cards showing information about the rate of urbanisation. Group two should match cards showing the scale of urbanisation. 
   1. Rate = the speed at which changes occur over time (i.e. the rate of urbanisation)
   2. Scale = the size and spread of urban growth (i.e. the scale of urbanisation).
3. Conclude - Using the information from the cards, write down three conclusions or generalisations that we could make about either the scale or rate of urbanisation. 
4. Extend - In groups or alone, research ten ‘urban facts’ about urbanisation and urban growth around the world. It’s up to you what information you gather. When you finish, try to categorise your facts using the following headings:
   1. Features (Descriptions of urbanisation)
   2. Causes (Explanations of urbanisation)
   3. Consequences (Impacts of urbanisation)
   4. Management or Other

Activity 3 - Should we worry about it?

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Activity Tasks

1. Read - Explore this article from the National Geographic Magazine. Make a list of the challenges of living in cities described by the article. Fill in the diagram on this worksheet with the examples you find.
2. Discuss - From your own personal experience of living in a city, what other challenges would you add to this list? Write these examples onto your worksheets.
3. Sort - Sort these statements about the impacts of urbanisation on this worksheet into either positive (opportunities) or negatives (Challenges) of living in cities. Once done, try organising the statements into these categories:
   1. Local vs. global impacts
   2. Short term vs. Long term impacts
   3. Physical vs. Human impacts
4. Rank - When you have finished sorting, rank your two piles from most significant to least significant. Use this worksheet to visualise your top three benefits and top three challenges of living in megacities.
   
5. Debate - As a class, share the positives and negatives of living in cities. What are the top three most serious problems of living in a city? What are the top three benefits of living in a city?

Activity 4 - Urbanisation in Jakarta

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Activity Tasks

1. Examine - Read through pages 1-2 on this worksheet and answer these questions:
   1. What does the map show about how Jakarta has changed from 1976 to 2010? What are some of the positive, negative and interesting aspects of this change ?
   2. Suggest possible reasons why people continue to move into large cities like Jakarta.
   3. Suggest reasons why Jakar ta is vulnerable to regular flooding. Why are the poor more vulnerable to flooding?
   4. Find out about other megacities in the developing world. What are the similarities and differences between life in Jakarta and other megacities?
2. Issues - Now read through pages 3-4 on the worksheet and answer these questions:
   1. Look at the photographs of Jakarta (on page 4) and choose the most appropriate caption for each photo:
      1. Poor housing, overcrowding and waste management
      2. Traffic congestion and air pollution
      3. Flooding is a regular hazard in the wet season.
      4. Without access to safe drinking water, poor communities have to buy water from street vendors.
   2. What are the reasons for Yulia and Ayang migrating to Jakarta? What do they like and dislike about the city?

Further Reading

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STANDARD READING

1. The rise of megacities – interactive | Global development
2. The world's biggest cities: How do you measure them?

CHALLENGING READING

1. Urban sustainability: what will a smart city look like in the future?

HARD READING

1. Petropolis now: Are cities getting too big?

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back to unit 4 menu - sustainability & society

next lesson - how can we research solutions?