Effects of the Industrial Revolution on the 21st century Lesson 1: Urbanization
Learning goal Students can explain what the positive and negative effects are of urbanization and have a discussion about the pros and cons of this.
Assignment 1 Most people nowadays live in cities. That wasn’t always the case. Sit together in pairs and discuss the following questions: 1. Is it a large city? 2. How large is your house? 3. How many members does your family contain of? 4. Do you own your own bed?
Assignment 2 Watch the Youtube clip on the left.
Assignment 3 Read the text and fill in the gaps missing.
Urbanization Pre-industrial society: 80 % of the population lived in rural areas. This _____ after the Industrial Revolution. People moved to small towns and these became _____ cities. Soon, more people would be living in cities then in rural areas. This had ______ consequences. One of the consequences was that cities became _____ . Small row houses were overly ____ . Large families would live in a very small house containing of few _____ . They usually had just one bed. Sometimes more than 5 people slept on one _____ ! Streets were very ____ because of all the trash that was thrown there by people. Because of all the factories there was a lot of air _____ . Because of unsanitary people quickly became _____. This was followed by ____. But there were also positive effects caused by urbanization. More people lived in cities and they could all work in the _____ there. Wealth was the effect on the country. More factories were build which caused even more wealth.
- Now explain in your own words what the positive effects were of urbanization. - And explain in your own words what the negative effects were of urbanization.
Assignment 4 Discussion: Class will be divided in two teams. One team will be the pro-team and the other will be the con-team. What role should the government have in urbanization and the consequences?
Pro: the government should provide for its people. They have to investigate the negative effects of the urbanization and come up with solutions.
Con: it is not the government that obligated people to move to cities. They have to provide for themselves and come up with solutions against the pollution and overcrowd.
Team A will use the pro to proof their point and team B will use the con to proof their point about the involvement of the government. You can use the information from the text of the previous assignment.
Assignment 5 At the end assignment of this lesson you are going to design an infographic. You may choose yourself whether to highlight the negative or the positive effects of urbanization. If you like, you can research your own city and the history of it.