Staying active. Learning together. #STEMatHome
“STEM@CGI at Home” offers weekly STEM-based activity packets for children, including practical STEM activities and
competitions. Get your family involved, share pictures, learn and have fun!
Smart Cities are a new concept for
a lot of us! Before we start exploring
Smart Cities, let’s define a few terms
around the concept:
Smart City – a city or community that uses
technology to improve quality of life. Being a “Smart
City” can also improve the way that the government
works for the people who live inside of it. In Smart
Cities, data and technology can help answer
questions like, “Where is the best place to build a
building for energy efficiency?” What are the best
places for the city bus to stop?” and “When should
street lights turn on?”
Data - are pieces of information. When we organize data to help us better understand things, we call that
Data Analysis. When we show data in picture form, we call that Data Visualization.
Internet of Things (IoT) - interconnected technologies that often use devices to exchange the collected data
from one network to another. Most of our everyday devices are designed and used to collect data all the time.
Examples of IoT devices include – your in-home thermostat from your smart phone, or a fitness device
designed to track your heart rate throughout the day.
Examples of Smart City IoT devices – many Smart City IoT devices are sensors. Sensors to tell us about air
quality, traffic patterns, open parking spaces and more.
Prototype – a first model of something. Sometimes prototypes are working models and sometimes they
are just to show the concept. Prototypes are generally 3D but often much smaller than the actual design.
Some prototypes are “working prototypes” meaning they are able to actually demonstrate the technology
and some are “non-working prototypes” meaning they show what the device would look like but not
demonstrate the technology.
STEM-based activities for kids that can be done at home
(continued on next page)
Activity 1 – Create a prototype of an IoT Smart City device
All ages
Step 1
– think of a problem in your community
Step 2 – think of how technology using data could help
solve this problem
Step 3
– write out what this device would do
Step 4 – draw up your idea of what this device might
look like
Step 5
– create a non-working prototype of the device
Step 6 – ask yourself how accessible and how
equitable your design is. Are there changes
you can make that will make the device more
accessible and equitable?
Step 7
– Make them!
Smart Cities and Equity
Simply put equity is fairness. When we think about creating new technology, it is important to think about who
that technology is including and whom it may accidently be excluding. For example, think about how this
technology will be accessible by and will impact:
• People without internet at home
• People without a smart phone
• People without a computer
• People who are deaf
• People who are blind
• People in a wheelchair
• People without a car
• People who speak a different language
When thinking about a particular Smart City technology think about how to make it equitable.
(continued from previous page)
Activity 2 – Create a Smart City and Silly City
All ages
A tale of two cities
A Smart City makes the best use of its resources to serve its people. A Silly City does not take into account
how its resources will serve its people.
Watch this video of CGI Director, Josh Sonnier, giving an example of how Smart Cities use resources to help
you think about your city.
Note: remember how we talked earlier about equity and accessibility? We applied that idea when creating
this lesson. We know some of you may have a printer and some may not. Because of that, the lesson design
allows for completion with or without a printer. It took a little more time and work to create this alternative
activity, but it is totally worth it to allow more people to learn from and have fun with this great lesson!
You can participate in this lesson in two ways – physical and digital.
Physical
Step 1
– print out the full sheets provided
Step 2
– color them in as you like
Step 3 – cut out and arrange on a page to create
your cities
Step 4
– is there anything you want to include in
your city that is missing? If so, draw it in
Step 6
– glue down and voila!
Digital
Step 1
– download the digital images provided
Step 2
– upload to a trusted editing software –
we suggest Scratch
Step 3
– digitally edit each image to your liking
Step 4 – save the images
Step 5 – arrange the images as you see fit for
your city
For more information or additional support with STEM activities when working remotely, please contact us here. © 2020 CGI Inc.
Block House
Learn how to make a simple house from a block
with Blender.
Blender
This is a first building block to making a digital city.
Citizen Scientist Video
Become a Citizen Scientist and learn how individuals
sharing information can improve data.
Video Sensing
Sensors are often used in Smart Cities. Have fun with
video sensors in this Scratch project!
These activities are aimed at students aged 8 to 14 but everyone can get involved!
Bonus activities
The materials in the package are hereby made available to you on an “as is” basis, without warranties or conditions of any kind, either express or implied. CGI accepts no responsibility nor liability for fees,
damages, costs or expenses of any kind incurred or resulting from the use of the materials in this program, or from any content accessed via the hyperlinks contained herein. Additional terms may apply.
Thank you for reading this note. We hope your students enjoy our STEM@CGI at Home Program.
Watch for more STEM@CGI at Home ideas next week.
Stay healthy and safe!
Activity 3 – Smart City in Action | LEaRN Air-Quality Sensors
It’s time to LEaRN about LEaRN.
This is a great example of a Smart City
project in action! Listen to Miss Anne and
Josh talk about this great project. Plus,
learn how to use the data collected by
the LEaRN project.
Parents –
Check out LEaRN
on Facebook
and Twitter too!
