Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Student Handout - Long-Term Garden Maintenance Research, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 10: Garden Ecology

To conduct research on various aspects of maintaining a garden for a long-term duration, to ensure a successful garden year-round. The research conducted will include students in each group making recommendations on their assigned topic to the whole class, during the whole-group share-out in Activity 3. This research is critical to informing the class on how to proceed with the Master Garden Maintenance Checklist which will be created in Activity 4.

Student Handout - Master Garden Maintenance Checklist, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 10: Garden Ecology

No abstract provided.

Lesson Plan - Attracting Pollinators, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 10: Garden Ecology

The purpose of this lesson is to find ways to attract pollinators.

Lesson Plan: Sounds Of Your Study Site, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

In this lesson, students will conduct a survey of noise in the study site. They will begin to explore the idea that noise has an impact on the ecosystem and its inhabitants. In small groups, they will use a decibel meter, data sheet and aerial photograph of the study site to collect data on a section of the site. Students will then share this information with classmates to create a map of the noise of your schoolyard. Then students will listen to prerecorded bird songs against urban noise. They will compare the bird songs and the characteristics that make them …

Student Pages - Sounds Around Your Study Site: Conducting A Noise Survey, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

The goal of this lesson is to conduct a survey of noise at your study site. In small groups, you will use a decibel meter, data sheet and an aerial photograph of your site to collect data on a particular section. You will then share this information with your classmates to create a map of the noise of your schoolyard.

Student Pages - Answer Key - Sounds Around Your Study Site: Conducting A Noise Survey, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

No abstract provided.

Lesson Plan: Behavioral Plasticity, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

In the previous lessons, students learned about the importance of noise in the urban environment. In response to urban noise as well as other characteristics of urban ecosystems, organisms modify their existing behaviors to maximize their fitness and likelihood of survival. This lesson focuses on behavioral plasticity, which is the idea that organisms’ behaviors are flexible and can be modified in response to their environment. Students complete an activity in which they investigate the plasticity of their own behaviors. The class then discusses how this analogy is similar and different compared to urban species as well as how the plasticity …

Structure Cards, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

No abstract provided.

Student Pages - How Do Behaviors Impact Survival?, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

Species constantly engage in a variety of behaviors or activities that help increase their chance of survival. For example, a bird may build a nest or a coyote might communicate to other coyotes through howling. In this activity, you are going to explore the plasticity of behaviors – the ability of an organism to change or modify its behaviors based on the external conditions. Specifically, you will examine your own behaviors, but then consider how your behaviors would be similar or different from other species. You will then consider how the plasticity of an organism’s behaviors impacts its chance of …

Student Pages - Answer Key - How Do Behaviors Impact Survival?, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

No abstract provided.

Lesson Plan: Developing A Persuasive Scientific Argument, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

In this lesson, students examine their data and construct an argument that answers their original research question. Students apply what they have been learning about behavioral adaptations to make sense of their bioacoustics data. After analyzing their data in groups and writing up their arguments, they present their research studies to the class, including their research question, methodology, and conclusions from their data. As part of these presentations, the class will discuss the validity of the different groups’ claims and whether they are supported by the data collected from the field as well as the various science concepts they have …

Presentation Template, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

No abstract provided.

Student Pages - Developing A Persuasive Scientific Argument, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

No abstract provided.

Lesson Plan: Comparing Our Results, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

The purpose of this lesson is for students to compare their findings to that of other similar studies. The goal of the lesson is two-fold. First, students should understand the big idea that organisms living in urban ecosystems have modified their behavior in response to the impacts of the humans that live there. Second, this lesson should reinforce the concept of sample size as well as help students understand that we still have many gaps in our understanding of animals in cities.

Student Pages - Comparing Our Results, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 07: Animal Adaptation & Behavior

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Food Hubs And Rebuilding Missing Middle Market Structure In Agriculture: The Social In Supply Chain Development, Stephen Luoni

Community Design Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

Tens of millions of Americans became food insecure during the COVID-19 pandemic as independent farmers dumped millions of tons of food due to economic lockdowns. Yet contract growers looped into vertically integrated monopoly supply chains escaped system breakdowns. Food provisioning is often seen as polarized between local scale and continental/ global market scale. Food supply and consumption are functions more of market structure than scale. Farmers reliant on direct sales to local restaurants, schools, universities, and hospitals saw their markets evaporate overnight. This Food Away from Home market constitutes 54 percent of food consumed nationally yet is vulnerable since direct-to-consumer …

Outline - Coyote Population Dynamics, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

The purpose of this lesson is to encourage students to begin thinking about the interactions between animals in an environment and the ways in which those interactions affect each animal. Students will learn about predator/prey dynamics and ecosystem biodiversity through the lens of coyotes and other city predators, primarily cats, by learning about their diets and movement patterns. They will then be asked to consider the impacts of humans and feral cat colonies on urban environments. Students will learn through discussion and interactive activities before presenting their findings via a management plan presentation.

Powerpoint - Coyote Population Dynamics, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

No abstract provided.

Note-Taking Graphic Organizer, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

No abstract provided.

Student Diet And Activity Tracker Worksheet, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

No abstract provided.

Outline - Coyote Traits, Adaptations & Behavior, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

The purpose of this lesson is to facilitate student acquisition of background knowledge on topics related to Canid speciation and evolution. This will focus on unique physical and behavioral characteristics of coyotes from other Canids as well as those adaptations that have allowed them to become so widely distributed through North America, though not quite as well distributed as dogs, which will also be a focus of this lesson. Students will research and present their findings via a Project Based Learning (PBL) poster.

Powerpoint - Coyote Traits, Adaptations & Behavior, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

No abstract provided.

Note-Taking Graphic Organizer, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

No abstract provided.

Outline - Coyote Biodiversity, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

The purpose of this lesson is to facilitate student acquisition of background knowledge on topics related to human and coyote impacts on biodiversity. This will focus on how humans impact biodiversity in urban areas, how coyotes fit into the urban food web, and how the two species interact with one another. Students will research and present their findings via a Project Based Learning (PBL) poster.

Note-Taking Graphic Organizer, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

No abstract provided.

Outline - Coyote Wildlife Management, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

The purpose of this lesson is to facilitate student acquisition of knowledge on topics related to human and coyote interactions. This will focus on how humans and coyotes interact in urban areas and ways in which scientists can mitigate conflicts between the two species. Students will research and present their findings via a PowerPoint presentation.

Powerpoint - Coyote Wildlife Management, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

No abstract provided.

Note-Taking Graphic Organizer, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

No abstract provided.

Coyote Risk Assessment Backyard Survey, Center For Urban Resilience

Module 12: Urban Wildlife

No abstract provided.