Studying and Teaching about the Internal Environments of Single-Structure Cities.

The field of urban geography has as its prime foci the study and teaching of the spatial relationships that exist among the various structures, areas, and inhabitants within cities. The idea of a single-structure city, a building where people can live, work, and be entertained with a climatically-controlled environment is no longer a utopian vision and offers new areas for geographic study. Students may study such cognitive concepts as spatial relationships; physical structure; physical, cultural and/or economic neighborhoods; transportation; and the impact of the new single-structure cities upon human behavior. Student skill development could include the translation and application of statistical, technical, and photographic data to the aforementioned cognitive concepts. Affective activities could include a simulation where students have to decide who will be allowed entry into a limited number of domed cities when ecological catastrophe occurs in the year 2050. In a second activity students might be asked for the personal reactions to a future "ideal city." (Author/DE)