My urban environment, Lanark, is a small town situated in the middle of Scotland. The population in the town is around 8800. Lanark has a vary of different buildings, ranging from shops, houses, flats, school, sports centres, churhces and farms.  Lanark still has many old, original buildings which outweighs the newer builds. There are many green spaces in the outskirts of the town due to farms and there are various parks and grass areas need schools and housing estates.  However, in the middle of the town there is a lack of greenery due to the upraise of buildings.  A lot space in the town is taken up by our 4 schools as well as 3 large supermarkets . Alongside,  Lanark’s highstreet is full of local stores with the only train station situated at the top.  Lanark now has a new sports centre and gym but this has left the old sports centre abandoned, making it an eyesore to the pubic. Other community spaces include, churches, the library, the YMCA, Lanark Loch and the local racecourse which accommodates an equestrian centre and many local football teams. As Lanark is rather small town, people tent to walk a lot more than people would in cities, instead of jumping in a taxi to get somewhere, walking is the main choice of transport. Buses and trains are available for transport into cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh at almost any time during the day. Taxis are rarely seen for daily use in Lanark, however, as there are people without cars or licenses taxis are essential to  go about their routines.  There are many nature walks and hikes around and in the town which makes the people or Lanark much more active as well as allowing them to appreciate their environment. The air pollution in Lanark is very low due to a lack of industrial buildings, it is only marked as a 1 which is very good. There is only one factory in Lanark, Borders biscuits, and this is on the outskirts of the town to stop such things.  As for noise pollution, this is not a problem in my town as the roads are rather quiet throughout the year and the trains run out of Lanark instead of through it.

To introduce and teach urban environment with a primary 5 class, I would take them out into their environment to get them to physically engage with what they are learning.  I would allow them to explore different types of house, shops and  community spaces  in the area.  you could allow them to do their own research as homework and maybe create class projects on how their environment differs to each others or even other countries. Then you could gradually increase the thought of transport and see how it affect the environment, maybe even allow the children to experience different forms of transport in due time.