Course: The Land Use Project

The Task
Your class will create a proposal that will enable your community to improve how it manages the use of its land, to improve the quality of life, so that young people will stay. When you are done you will make a presentation to other schools around the state, and to community leaders and land use experts, on what your class feels needs to be done. To develop a plan for attracting young people to live in your community you will need to answer the question “How can the use of land in your community be improved so that the quality of life will encourage you to stay?”

Clarify and refine the question to develop the initial hypotheses

To develop a plan for attracting young people to live in your community you will need to answer the question

“How can the use of land in your community be improved so that the quality of life will encourage you to stay?”

Take ten minutes to list what questions need to be answered for this question to be clear. For example, what does the “use of land” mean? You will discuss these issues as a class.

After clarifying the question use the directions for Brainstorming and Selecting to develop five agreed upon hypotheses for improving the use of land in your community.

Begin the Research

Research includes reading existing information and getting information that does not exist. Existing information can include websites, newspapers, journals and radio and TV. Not existing information can include surveys, interviews and observations. To begin the research processes do the following:

- Click on Information Processing to get steps for conducting research and use this tool to guide your research.
- Review the Research Rubric to see how to explain the research.
- As you study the hypothesis, keep in mind Evaluation of Land Use Options; Generic Questions.
- List questions you may have about the hypothesis. Examples of the questions are “What short term and what long term actions could be take to improve the quality of life.
- Your solution may be impacted by a state or local governmental policy, so you will want to explore the legal issues surrounding your solution.
- You will need to explore how your solution is impacted by existing policy and what changes need to be made in the policy or in your solution.
- What support do you have for your solution?

The best way to do this project is to divide into teams. Use the Team Planning Worksheet to set the key teams.