Community studies and an urban focus are returning to the social studies. This digest reviews urban studies from a historical perspective. The first section discusses the value of studying cities, noting that city living is becoming fashionable again, and a movement called the New Urbanism has brought a new appreciation for the social, cultural,…

Hong Kong International School has made extensive use of city resources in teaching concepts of government, world affairs, urban geography, economic geography, and macro-economics, in ways that may be replicated in other urban centers. (MB)

Lists five units of instruction, available from ERIC, for teaching about U.S. history. The units span the K-12 social studies curriculum, focusing on such topics as immigration, women, and urban development. (RKM)

The units from Geography in an Urban Age are described and the potential impact of this new approach to geography is emphasized. (JB)

Chicago's Metro High curriculum is the city; its learning laboratory is the community; and its lesson is freedom, choice, and responsibility. (Author)

The best way to define geography is to think of it as the study of processes as they operate over space and in place. The evolution of this definition is discussed, and examples of the way in which geographers have studied social change in U.S. cities are provided. (RM)

Describes high school social studies course in western civilization with an urban emphasis. Suggests that since 85 percent of the population lives in cities, few Americans can escape the reality of urban living or the influence of urban phenomena in their lives. (Author/KC)

The experience of an extended urban field study project proved an effective method for stimulating students' appetites for discovery and for didactic learning as well. (Author/KM)

By conducting a pedestrian survey, secondary or college level students answer the question "What is the best location for a new business requiring maximum pedestrian traffic?" They collect data on the number and types of people on streets in a commercial area of a city. (RM)

This guide presents seven units of study for secondary level social studies classes learning about New York City. The curriculum is designed to encourage students' active participation in, rather than passive observation of, their urban environment. Therefore, the various activities presented require students to investigate their own community's…

When photographically reproduced for classroom use, the physical city as a visual tool of the urban past can be a valuable teaching technique. Suggestions for using city photographs in secondary classrooms are included. (Author/JR)

Presents an eight-step process for developing and presenting a supplementary unit to help students in grades 5-12 understand in greater depth the story of America's cities. (RM)

This article evaluates a project with an inquiry-based methodology in which high school students experience and attempt to solve the same type of urban problems faced by professional geographers. (SM)

This article evaluates law instruction materials that can be combined in an interdisciplinary way in the hope that secondary students will be thoroughtly familiar with the law and, therefore, resist injustice. By using an inquiry approach into case studies students delve into controversial social problems that exist in urban America. (SM)

A thorough knowledge of the human environmental association is fundamental, for the man-land relationship encompasses the sum total of integrated learned behavior or culture patterns of particular societies. (Author)