Educational Initiatives
The Minnesota City/County Management Association has been working for several years to develop curriculum units that will help students understand how their local community works. A number of strands and substrands in the Minnesota Academic Standards lend themselves to local government applications. Further, all cities and counties have web sites and most post information to those sites that can be used to bring the local community into the classroom.
This section of the MCMA web site provides links to a number of curriculum components created by MCMA members for classroom use, and from other sites on the Web (notably the Michigan Civics Institute). This page is regularly updated as new components are developed and tested.
Strengthening student understanding
of local government
By getting into the schools, you are doing a wonderful service for your community and, equally important, a wonderful service for our local government profession! Please customize this letter template (Word) to contact your local schools about encouraging local government education.
When you send correspondence to your schools, you may want to consider sending the letter directly to a social studies teacher, or you can also send or copy the letter to the chair of the Social Studies Department and the Superintendent's Office. Jennifer Bloom, director of the Learning, Law and Democracy Center and an active participant in the MCMA Education Committee, can connect you with the appropriate person in your school district. Jennifer can be reached at (651) 772-4276 or pebl710@msn.com.
Once you've made contact with your schools, please contact any member of the MCMA Educational Initiatives Committee for ideas about local government projects and lessons you can initiate with the students. Of course, simply making the effort to go to the schools and talk to students about the services we provide in local government and the career opportunities that exist in professional local government management is a wonderful first step!
Lastly, if you find a project or lesson that is especially successful when you work with students, you are encouraged to share those ideas with the MCMA Education Committee members. Thank you for promoting our profession with the next generation!
MCMA Education Committee members
- Dianne Miller,
City of Eagan,
Committee Chair
- Mike Ericson,
City of Hugo
- Rebecca Erickson,
League of Minnesota Cities
- Tony Filipovitch,
Urban Studies, MN State University
Mankato
- Kevin Frazell,
League of Minnesota Cities
- Ron Johnson,
City of Lake City
- Phil Kern, City
of Delano
- Kay Kuhlmann, City of Red
Wing
- Michael
Redlinger, City of Moorhead
- Clinton Rogers,
City of Janesville
- Bob Therres,
City of Blaine
- Dave Unmacht, Scott
County
MN Academic Standards in History and the Social Studies
Links to Lesson Plans:
- Geography
- Spatial Organization
- The student will understand the regional distribution of the human population at local to global scales and its patterns of change.”
- “The student will analyze the patterns of location, functions, structure, and characteristics of local to global settlement patterns and the processes that affect the location of cities.”
- “Build a Block”—A lesson that teaches students the issues involved in the subdivision of land and providing the space for services that will be needed.
- “Balancing Working and Living”—A lesson in which students create a local economy which matches employment opportunities with household characteristics.
- “Elementary City Planning”—A brief lesson with elementary students about the types of land uses and the reasons for separating them.
- “The student will use regions and the interaction among them to analyze the present patterns of economic activity in the United States and around the world at various scales.”
- Interconnections
- “The student will describe how humans influence the environment and in turn are influenced by it.”
- “Design with Nature”—A lesson that asks students to assess the environmental tradeoffs in locating building sites.
- Strand VI: Economics
- A: The Market Economy
- “The student will understand the economic role of government in a free market economy.”
- “Landowners’ Game”—A lesson, based on the Prisoner’s Dilemma and “The Tragedy of the Commons,” that points up the difference between private goods and public goods in trying to supply good quality rental housing.
- B: The National Economy
- Standard 1: “The student will understand the economic activities of government.”
- Substrand E: Economics and Public Policy
- Standard 1: “The student will apply economic theories and concepts to public policy issues.”
- “Minapple Game”—A role-playing simulation in which the students attempt to resolve an issue that wraps economics and political issues in the same package.
- Strand VII: Government and Citizenship
- Substrand A: Civic Values, Skills, Rights and Responsibilities
- Standard 3: “The student will analyze various methods of civic engagement needed to fulfill responsibilities of a citizen of the republic.”
- Substrand B: Beliefs and Principles of United States Democracy
- Standard 3:“The student will understand tensions that exist between key principles of government in the United States.”
- Substrand D: Governmental Processes and Institutions
- Standard 4: “The student will understand the role and influence of political processes and organizations.”
- Standard 6:“The student will understand Minnesota state and local government structure and political processes.”
