The city of Newberg’s Design Star program, which prompts local sixth grade students to think critically about community planning, has been selected as the recipient of the American Planning Association’s 2013 National Planning Excellence Award for Public Outreach.

The announcement was made Jan. 9 and the award — which recognizes individuals, projects and programs that use information and education about the value of planning and how it improves a community’s way of life — will be presented April 16 during the APA’s National Planning Conference in Chicago.

Spearheaded by Newberg assistant planner Jessica Nunley and geographic information system (GIS) analyst Jan Wolf, the program was created in 2006 in response to an APA initiative asking local planners to engage young people.

“I like to think that we’re creating civic awareness or civic engagement, and that city government is not scary,” Nunley said. “We look forward to it every year.”

The program began as a one-day classroom presentation in which Nunley and Wolf would explain what they do for the city and have the students design a city of their own from a blank map.

In the past five years, the program has evolved and expanded into a regular part of the curriculum at Mountain View, Chehalem Valley and C.S. Lewis Academy middle schools.

Nunley and Wolf not only introduce students to the basics of planning, but challenge them to come up with ideas on how to develop two separate parcels of land in town, one downtown and one near Springbrook Road.

The students spend about two weeks learning about city wants and needs, environmental interactions, the positive and negative impacts of development and the need for jobs as they work on their projects.

"The Design Star project invites students to think creatively and use higher order thinking skills, including analysis, evaluation, synthesis and critical thinking that will drive student success in the 21st century,” said Ann Bagley, the chairwoman of the APA Awards Jury. “The project not only teaches planning principles but it also helps young people develop skills related to innovative thinking, mapping, writing, presenting and working in groups.”

Students eventually present their ideas to the class and the top ones are later delivered to Nunley and Wolf, who will in turn choose a select few to be presented during a Newberg City Council work session.

Bowling alleys, sports complexes, laser tag and restaurants tend to be popular ideas every year, but over the years the project has demonstrated to Nunley and Wolf that Newberg lacks places for teenagers to gather.

MVMS social studies teacher Heather Bryant, who has participated in the program since it started, said that enough students have gone through the program now that she and other instructors focus on getting them to think differently and more realistically than their older brothers and sisters did.

“I think the strength of it is that the teachers have really bought into it,” Nunley said.

This year’s students are working on their project ideas and a few will present theirs to the city council on Feb. 19.

“I think one of the other teachers has a group that’s developing a light rail,” Bryant said. “It’s kind of gone from six groups presenting a mall to all different sorts of things. It is one of my favorite things to do every single year.”
 

by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic