Earth Park by Ed D Jr Theodore J Gourley

Earth Park stemmed from a special end-of-the-year project with 3rd and 5th grade students from which the author developed this practical, hands-on and creative, critical thinking project which can be a whole-school experience.

In the year 2097, the Knowaltz family sets out to design a park on an asteroid circling the Earth.  The park is to be a theme park, with separate exhibits of displays of the geographic features representing a type of Earth environment – oceans, mountains, forests, etc. – including the plants, animals and human cultures that have called this environment home.

This is a multiple team project to build the various exhibit halls for this futuristic theme park. Student teams use the internet and other resources to research information for creating text, graphic, visual, multi-media and three-dimensional exhibits of the Earth’s environment. They also create futuristic characters and inventions for the year 2097.

On “Earth Park Day” each team joins other teams, setting up their individual exhibit halls and creating a total Earth Theme Park. Team members take turns visiting and evaluating other exhibits as well as guiding visitors through their own exhibit halls.