A lesson plan designed by 博彩平台网址大全 城市研究 major Victoria Asfalg ’23 will help 康涅狄格 educators teach high school students about the history 和 impacts of zoning policy.
的 计划公布 在十二月被 教它, a 康涅狄格 Humanities program that provides the state’s teachers with instructional resources focusing on local history.
Asfalg, 落基山, 康涅狄格, began work on this lesson plan as part of an assignment for the Trinity 教育研究 course “Cities, Suburbs, 和 Schools,” taught by Professor of Educational Studies 杰克多尔蒂 during the spring 2022 semester.
“I’ve always been passionate about equity,” Asfalg said about why she chose zoning policy as the topic of her lesson plan. “I took ‘Race 和 Urban Space’ [taught by Davarian L. 鲍德温保罗·E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies] earlier 在三一 和 learned about zoning 和 the impacts of exclusionary zoning, including in the context of 康涅狄格.”
分区, as Asfalg’s project defines it, is “the practice of designating areas of l和 for certain uses. Exclusionary zoning is the practice of using zoning to prevent certain groups of people from having access to certain areas.”
“I think zoning is one of those things that not many people know about,” Asfalg said. “It’s an important part of how society is shaped: what buildings can go where, 它们能有多大, where a supermarket can open—it affects so much. Teaching students about this will make them more aware of the influences that shape their world.”
Each student project in the course was reviewed by Rebecca Furer, program consultant for 教它, who invited Asfalg to further develop 和 publish her project. “When I heard Victoria’s presentation about exclusionary zoning in the spring of 2022, I was impressed by her efforts to take a really complicated topic 和 make it engaging for high school students through guided questions 和 h和s-on activities,”Furer说。. “I immediately thought it would make a great addition to 教它 because of the way in which it connected a historical topic to an issue that 康涅狄格 still grapples with today.”
康涅狄格 Humanities awarded Asfalg a stipend from a grant to diversify topics in its current lesson plans as a way to recognize the time she spent on the project. 毛说, “To Victoria’s credit, she put in lots more work beyond what was expected for her class in order to respond to my questions 和 editorial comments 和 get the activity ready for publication.”
Asfalg developed three major components of the lesson plan: the ability to analyze a zoning map, complete an interactive activity on zoning, 和 analyze the historical influences of zoning. 的 plan also includes links to an introductory video 和 resources such as an interactive map, as well as a worksheet that Asfalg created. “It’s like a game with a little bit of math involved,”她说。.
多尔蒂, who has researched 和 written extensively about zoning, said that it is an important topic to teach local students. “分区 is one of the most deeply contested issues facing 康涅狄格’s local governments 和 our state legislature. If we want future voters to engage with these debates, we need to teach about them in our public schools,他说. “Victoria’s pedagogical insight was to translate complex zoning laws into a simple game. How many single-family versus multi-family homes can you place on a sample street? How do different zoning rules—such as minimum l和 requirements for single-family homes—make your decisions more or less inclusive?”
This year, Asfalg has served as a teaching assistant to 多尔蒂. Next semester she will launch an independent study project with a 哈特福德 community partner on mapping change in the Parkville neighborhood.
“Working with eager learners like Victoria is the best part of my job 在三一,” said 多尔蒂.
During her time 在三一, Asfalg has worked at the 奥斯汀艺术中心, competed as member of the 女子赛艇队, 和 volunteered through Trinity’s 首页lessness Project with the local organizations 回家 和 双手紧握哈特福德.
After graduating in the spring, Asfalg will join 美国志愿队 to serve as a tutor 和 mentor for students in New York City as part of a 10-month fellowship. Among her career options, Asfalg is considering both urban planning 和 education. “I love working with people, especially kids,”她说。.
与此同时, Asfalg said she is proud of her accomplishment with the zoning policy lesson plan 和 what it could add to local classrooms. “I’m thrilled that it might be useful to some teachers, 和 students might learn something more about where they live,”她说。.
