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9th Grade  Project 3 weeks

Chi-Town Remix Map Lab

Joseph S
Updated
VA:Cr2.3.I.a
MA:Pr6.1.I.a
VA:Cn11.1.I.a
VA:Cr1.1.I.a
VA:Cr1.2.I.a
+ 5 more
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The Challenge

You live in a city whose public image is often reduced to landmarks, headlines, and tourist routes, leaving many neighborhood histories, cultural traditions, and everyday experiences underrepresented or overlooked. When a city’s stories are narrowed this way, people lose access to a fuller understanding of place, identity, and how history shapes present-day life.

Challenge Question

How might we tell untold stories of Chicago’s neighborhoods through interactive art so that visitors and community members at the Harold Washington Library, Chicago Yacht Club, and across the Loop can experience the city’s history and culture in new ways?

Standards

  • [Illinois] VA:Cr2.3.I.a - **Investigate** Collaboratively develop a proposal for an installation, artwork, or space design that transforms the perception and experience of a particular place.
  • [Illinois] MA:Pr6.1.I.a - **Present** Design the presentation and distribution of collections of media artworks, considering combinations of artworks, formats, and audiences.
  • [Illinois] VA:Cn11.1.I.a - **Synthesize** Describe how knowledge of culture, traditions, and history may influence personal responses to art.
  • [Illinois] VA:Cr1.1.I.a - **Investigate, Plan, Make** Use multiple approaches to begin creative endeavors.
  • [Illinois] VA:Cr1.2.I.a - **Investigate, Plan, Make** Shape an artistic investigation of an aspect of present-day life using a contemporary practice of art or design.

Competencies

  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.

Learning Partners and Clients

Students will work with Chicago as both the client and the living context for the project, using fieldwork and research to tell stories of the city that are often overlooked. Key learning partners include the Chicago Yacht Club, Harold Washington Library, and Chicago Loop historical sites, which provide firsthand access to place-based history, culture, archives, and public narratives. These partners help students take on the roles of historians, artists, and media makers as they create interactive group artifacts for a real audience.

Phase Overview

Phase Key Experiences
Discover
I can launch this project by exploring Chicago sites, stories, and neighborhood histories to identify whose Chicago is often missing from typical maps and why that matters.
Examine
I can investigate neighborhoods, landmarks, and cultural histories through field notes, photos, interviews, and library sources to understand how place shapes identity and experience. I can analyze how artists, historians, and media makers tell stories about cities so I can choose effective ways to communicate Chicago through sound, image, space, or interaction. I can compare whose perspectives are centered or left out in common representations of Chicago so I can identify patterns, bias, and overlooked narratives. I can work with my group to organize evidence from our visits and research into a clear claim about the Chicago story we want audiences to experience.
Engineer
I can develop a collaborative, interactive media artwork or installation that transforms how people experience Chicago by combining our research, field experiences, and creative choices into a clear group proposal and artifact.
Do
I can gather feedback and real-world data from classmates, teachers, and community partners as they interact with our work, then analyze what they understand, feel, and question to measure how effectively it communicates our Chicago story.
Share
I can share our interactive map experience with peers, families, school staff, and Chicago partners, explaining how our work reveals untold city stories while reflecting on how my voice, identity, and understanding of place grew through the project.