Consumer Education Name:_________________________
African American History Date:________________Period:_____
Consumer Education Project:
How Healthy is Your Neighborhood?
Introduction: Chicago is a massive city of 3 million people. Its residents live in a myriad of
neighborhoods that stretch like a patchwork over 225 square miles. These neighborhoods vary in terms of
their density and architecture, but also in terms of their industry, culture and class. In order to understand
how the layout and resources within a neighborhood influence the quality of life of its residents, you are
going to do a neighborhood mapping project to fulfill our consumer education requirement. In small
groups, you will research a neighborhood, map its resources and come to your own conclusions about the
neighborhood’s overall health. Your goal is to analyze and answer the question “How Healthy is Your
Neighborhood?” You may divide up the various tasks that are a part of this project between your group
members as long as you work on the analysis together.
Dates Class
Friday, April 15th Consumer Education Project Introduced
Friday, May 6th Consumer Education Workday-205 Lab
Friday, May 13th Consumer Education Workday-205 Lab
Wednesday, May 25th Consumer Education Workday-205 Lab
Thursday, May 26th Consumer Education Workday-205 Lab
Friday, May 27th Consumer Education Presentations Consumer Ed Project Due
Guidelines
You will…
1. Work in groups of 1 to 5.
I am working with ______________________________________________________.
2. Map at least 5 full blocks of your neighborhood, the Lincoln Park neighborhood or another
neighborhood that your parent is comfortable with you walking in during the daytime. You want
to pick blocks that have a mixture of residences and businesses and you want to select blocks that
are close together. You will complete this map on graph paper or a paper of your choosing. You
should include all street names. You should include at least the range of addresses on the block
and come up with a code for the following types of buildings and institutions that you will include
on your map (or very clearly label everything):
Residences (homes & apartment buildings)
Banks/Credit Unions/Currency Exchanges
Real Estate Offices
Grocery Stores/Produce Markets
Convenience Stores/Liquor Stores/Gas Stations
Retail Stores/Repair Shops/Gyms
Restaurants/Coffee Shops/Bakeries, etc…
Fast Food Chains
Hospitals/Doctor’s offices/Dentist’s offices/Pharmacies
Parks/Libraries
Police Departments/Blue Light Cameras
Schools/Universities
CTA bus or train stops
Vacant buildings or empty land
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Consumer Education Name:_________________________
African American History Date:________________Period:_____
I am mapping the ____________________________ neighborhood.
3. Have parent permission to walk in the neighborhood to do the mapping. If your parents does not
want you to do the mapping, make sure you work with someone who can. I give my student,
________________________________ (student name), permission to map 5 blocks of the above
neighborhood. _____________________________________ (parent signature)
____________________________________ (parent preferred phone or email)
4. Analyze your map. After you’ve completed your block by block map, analyze what you’ve
recorded. Study your map to answer the question “How healthy is your neighborhood?”. Write at
least one paragraph summarizing the health of your neighborhood based on what you’ve found.
Consider the following questions when writing your analysis:
Is your neighborhood crowded? Are there a lot of high rises or densely populated buildings? Or
are there mostly single family homes?
Do you see “for rent” signs? Or do you think people own their homes in your neighborhood?
Are there many resources in your neighborhood that you would consider positive? Look at the list
from the mapping guidelines.
Do people in your neighborhood have access to fresh and affordable food? Are the options
healthy?
What kinds of financial institutions are available in your neighborhood? What kinds of
transactions can they do?
What kind of businesses are open in your neighborhood and what does that mean people have
access to?
Are there facilities in your neighborhood that relate to people’s physical health?
Does the neighborhood have adequate safety?
Are there schools and parks in your neighborhood to service kids?
Is your neighborhood accessible by public transportation so that the residents have access to the
rest of the city?
Is there unused spaced? If so, how does that appear to impact the neighborhood?
5. Research your neighborhood’s history using the Encyclopedia of Chicago or another reliable
web site. Go to http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/ and type in your neighborhood’s name to
get started. Once you have read about your neighborhood, cite the exact web page and write your
own one paragraph summary of your neighborhood’s history. Consider the following questions
when writing your summary:
When was your neighborhood founded?
Who first populated your neighborhood? How did that change over time?
What type of work have people done in your neighborhood?
Has your neighborhood become known for anything or anyone in particular?
Has your neighborhood experienced any challenges in the past?
How do you think the neighborhood has changed up to today?
6. Research the census data for your neighborhood. First, go to
http://www1.chicagoreader.com/cgi-bin/sf/ziplist.cgi to find the zip code for your neighborhood.
(If you don’t know the name of your neighborhood, use the neighborhood maps Ms. Johnson has.)
Then, go to http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en and type in your
neighborhood’s zip code and select Illinois. Remember that this information is for your entire zip
code and not just the neighborhood or the blocks that you mapped. You may want to consider this
in your analysis. You could also compare your neighborhood to another well known
neighborhood using the zip codes. One you have studied your zip code’s statistic, cite the exact
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Consumer Education Name:_________________________
African American History Date:________________Period:_____
web page and write a one paragraph analysis of what the numbers show you. Consider the
following questions when writing your summary:
How many people live in your zip code?
What is the racial makeup of your zip code?
What is the education level of people in your zip code?
What is the average income of people in your zip code?
How many people own homes in your zip code? What is the average value of homes in your zip
code?
7. Research a school in your neighborhood. Pick a school in your neighborhood that you want to
learn more about. Go to http://iirc.niu.edu/. Click on the “2009 PDF School Reports” link near
the bottom of the page. On the new page, type in the name of the school and then hit “Search.”
Your school should come up, then click on the school name. A PDF file of the school report
should automatically open. Once you have studied this report, print the first page only of the
report, then write a one paragraph analysis of what you have learned about the school from the
report. Remember, this report cannot tell you everything about the school. Consider the
following questions when writing your summary:
What is the total enrollment of your school? And how does this compare to the rest of the district?
What is the racial breakdown of the student population of your school? And how does this compare to the
rest of the district?
What percentage of students are low income at your school? And how does this compare to the rest of the
district?
What percentage of students speak English as a second language at your school? And how does this compare
to the rest of the district?
What percentage of students drop out of your school? And how does this compare to the rest of the district?
What is the student attendance rate of your school? What percentage of students are truant at your school?
And how does this compare to the rest of the district?
What is the average class size of your school? And how does this compare to the rest of the district?
What are your school’s test averages and how do they compare to the rest of the district?
What is your school’s graduation rate? And how does this compare to the rest of the district?
8. Research your neighborhood in the news. Use google.com to search for a news story related to
your neighborhood. For example, you could find an article about a business, a school, a person or
an important event from your neighborhood. You can also search the newspaper web sites like
Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Defender, La Raza, Substance News, Chicago
Daily News or local neighborhood papers. If you’re interested in crime, you can go to
http://chicago.everyblock.com/ and type in an address in your neighborhood and read about
specific crimes committed in the area. Once you have studied your article, print the first page only
of the report, cite the source and its publication date and then write a one paragraph analysis of the
relevance of the article to your neighborhood. Consider the following questions in writing your
summary:
What is this article about? Is it about a business, a school, a person, an important event or
something else related to your neighborhood?
If you’re looking at crime, what types of crimes have occurred in your neighborhood? What does
this reflect about the neighborhood?
What does this article tell you about your neighborhood?
Does the article reflect positively or negatively on your neighborhood? Why or why not?
9. Finally, you will present what you’ve learned to the class. Instead of asking you to write a full
summary, you should be prepared to present your overall thoughts and findings to the class in 5-7
minutes.
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Consumer Education Name:_________________________
African American History Date:________________Period:_____
Consumer Education Project REPORT:
How Healthy is Your Neighborhood?
Group Members:_________________________________________________________
Neighborhood:_________________________ Zip Code:_______________
Our map is attached to this report.
The 1 page of our School Report Card is attached to this report.
st
The 1st page of our news article is attached to this report.
Map Analysis:
Minimum one paragraph summary of what we learned from our neighborhood map:.
Neighborhood History:
Source Citation (Encyclopedia of Chicago):
___________________________________________________________________
One paragraph summary of our neighborhood’s history:.
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Consumer Education Name:_________________________
African American History Date:________________Period:_____
Census Data:
Source Citation (US Census Bureau):
___________________________________________________________________
One paragraph analysis of our zip code’s census data:
School Profile:
Name of School: ________________________________________
Address of School:__________________________________________
One paragraph analysis of our chosen school’s data:
In the News:
Source Citation:
___________________________________________________________________
Publication Date: ________________________
One paragraph analysis of our neighborhood’s news article:
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Consumer Education Name:_________________________
African American History Date:________________Period:_____
Consumer Education Project GRADING RUBRIC:
How Healthy is Your Neighborhood?
GUIDELINES POINTS YOUR POINTS & COMMENTS
POSSIBLE
Map
At least 5 blocks
Includes a code for types of buildings
Includes street names
Includes address range
Labeled or thoroughly coded
Legible & attached to report 25
Map Analysis
Accurate, thorough & based on actual map
Conclusions are logical and not just
generalizations 15
Neighborhood History
Source is cited
Accurate & thorough summary 10
Census Data Analysis
Source is cited
Accurate & thorough, based on statistics
Conclusions are logical and not just
generalizations 10
School Report Analysis
1st page attached to report
Accurate & thorough, based on statistics
Conclusions are logical and not just
generalizations 10
News Analysis
1st page attached to report
Source is cited
Accurate & thorough summary
Conclusions are logical and not just
generalizations 10
Writing
All writing is original & ideally typed
Proof read & free of spelling & grammar
errors 10
Presentation
All members participate
Professional
Appropriate length 10
TOTAL (Minus points for late projects.) 100
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