By: Ori Paz

Several City of Menlo Park employees had an opportunity to share their knowledge of planning and public works with a group of fourth graders as part of a unique learning activity called "Geometrocity." Students at the Upper Laurel School were tasked with playing the role of mathematician, politician and urban designer and were organized into groups that focused on a given area of their “city” and later, merging districts together into a hopeful utopia. Using a set of assigned angles and geometric shapes, the students set out to establish the urban, business, entertainment, suburban and industrial districts on a grid. The assignment fostered an opportunity to focus on the micro scale of city districts to experiencing how ideas come together on the macro scale with some groups electing an 11-member city council and mayor!  

City staff provided feedback on the students’ ideas and designs. Staff said it was inspiring to see the level of commitment and creativity shown by the young students and were happy to share real-life insights as to how the city might best come together. The feedback provided will be used to modify the 2D plan, and later these 2D plans will be transformed into a 3D model of the imagined metropolis.