Students will launch the project by analyzing local neighborhood change alongside Gilded Age evidence, begin identifying who benefits and who is left out, and select a local issue for deeper investigation using chunked, collaborative routines.

Students will gather and analyze community, historical, and local planning evidence about neighborhood change; test assumptions against real user perspectives; and create an empathy artifact and fairness-focused planning set that prepares teams for ideation.

Students will turn their historical and community research into a fairness-focused design brief, generate several distinct neighborhood improvement concepts, build low-fidelity policy pitch prototypes with maps and data visuals, and use structured peer and community feedback to revise their direction for the next phase.

Students will strengthen their neighborhood improvement proposal through two documented feedback-and-revision cycles, refine maps, data visuals, and policy pitch language for a public audience, validate their ideas with an outside perspective, and prepare for the Future City Forum by clearly explaining who benefits, who is left out, and why their recommendation is fairer.

Students will present their neighborhood improvement proposals to families and community partners, respond to authentic questions using historical and local evidence, and complete a final reflection on content mastery, collaboration, and personal growth.