Tricks, Tips and Logistics
Box City Day at Sister MacNamara began at 9:00 am on Wednesday May 21st 1997. The logistics behind running a successful Box City is different for everybody. This is the method in which Box City ran at Sister MacNamara School.
Set-up
Much of the work of coordinating Box City is actually done prior to the event itself. Ironically, once the first child places the first building, it is self-directed by the children and volunteers involved. But some of the important set-up components are :
Book the space accordingly. Most times a gym is needed to lay out the city grid(s) and have enough room for buildings, kids, planning committee table, repair table and "wander-ability" of the invited guests.
Have your city grid(s) completed at least a couple of days before the event.
Coordinate how the students will bring their buildings down to the location of the event (sounds simple, but think about all the work that went into the buildings only to have one fall down a flight of stairs in the excitement) .
Set up your repair table early with adequate supplies of paper, glue, scissors, and "building supplies".
The Land-Use or City Grid
This can be the most difficult task ever undertaken by a human being, but once successful it is never forgotten. Since there were three separate classes building three different cities everything at Sister MacNamara had to be done three times! The Box City classroom pack available from CUBE provides not only a curriculum but also a handy template for cutting out and tracing your land-use grid. At Sister Mac the students worked individually and then in groups to decide upon the way their city land-use map would evolve.
Once the final decision of how the land would be look, it was enlarged and traced in pencil onto a 15 foot by 11 foot grey colored utility tarp. Roads were cut out of rolls of black construction paper and placed on the tarp. Once the roads are temporarily placed down, it is important to use the template to determine lot sizes which will be utilize. This is simply done by using the template cut into different lot sizes. Once the roads and lot sizes are finalize, the fun task of taping begins.
One of the interesting tricks that came out of this Box City was the method of producing a colorful and reusable city land-use map. Instead of painting or drawing right on the tarp the designated land-use zones (Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Community) colored electrical tape was used to not only seal down the roads but also to indicate which areas were zoned for what particular land use. This method proved to be an excellent and quite versatile means of providing a large and colorful land-use map. But, some of the problems encountered are worth noting. Make sure that the tarp is as flat and tight as possible while you are taping otherwise the tape will buckle and come off in a short time (tape the corners down of the tarp and let it stretch for a while). Don't fold the map to transport it, roll it. Give yourself at least 1 hour before the event to lay out the map and tape the corners as well as sealing down any tape that might of come off in the transport.
Buildings
The Box City curriculum gives an array of activities and information on buildings and methods of construction of buildings. The classroom pack even provides boxes in three different sizes ready to color and decorate. Because of the large amount of students (65) and the fact that they would be involved in building three buildings each (two buildings per child and one large group building), the students were asked a month before the event to bring boxes to school.
Depending on the age of students involved, it should be determined early on whether scale of the buildings will be followed. This is explained very well in the curriculum and is an excellent learning tool for students of an appropriate age. At Sister Mac, we worked using a very rough scale whereby boxes were determined ahead of time. Windows, doors and such were not to scale.
The mix of buildings were determined as part of an exercise three weeks in advance. This is important because all towns and city's have a relative mix of buildings. We used the following mix
Planning Committee
The planning committee are a group of students and volunteers who act just like a city's planning committee. Each city has their own planning committee. The planning committees at Sister Mac were made up of
The Deputy Mayor is the mayor's representative in disputes between student/builders and the planning committee.
The Mayor is the town or city's representative to the other city's or to the guests present.
The role of the planning committee is to either approve or reject the buildings being placed on the land-use grid. The planning committee calls up the student/builders one by one and inspects the building ensuring that it is up to "code" and that it is the building described in the "building-permit". If the building needs improvements it is then taken to the repair table to be repaired and it will be called up again once repairs are made.
Once a building is passed by the planning committee the committee will assist the student in placing their building in the appropriate zone. If the student places a building in violation of the set "by-laws" then they are asked to remove the building and place it in the appropriate zone. In every Box City witnessed this is where the learning really shines and well......you'll find out.
This is just a few of the many aspects of how Box City functioned at Sister MacNamara, if you have questions about running Box City for your school or class please either contact C.U.B.E. You may e-mail Michael Gray about his Box City experience or if you have a question.
