City Building Education™ is an innovative, nationally-recognized educational model developed over 35 years ago by Cal Poly Ponoma professor Doreen Nelson. It uses the built environment as a focal point and vehicle for learning.

City Building Education's interdisciplinary and multidimensional approach employs the unique Backward Thinking™ method, "the natural way that people resolve dilemmas, change things and continuously arrange and rearrange reality to control time and space. The learner is asked to start with invention - regardless of the subject or the task… Once engaged, they analyze the invention…" (from the Introduction on the website). Through creation of original, three-dimensional projects (e.g. cities, villages, businesses, continents, or civilizations) elementary and secondary students gain practical knowledge and talents that can be applied to real-world problems.

The model emerged from Ms. Nelson's years of teaching experience. It is an intersection of several educational theories, including those of John Dewey, Hilda Taba, Benjamin Bloom, John Guilford, and Jerome Bruner.

Research indicates astonishing results with students learning faster, retaining information longer and being able to apply their learning by transferring their information gathered from one area to another.

Prof. Nelson has received numerous awards for her work, including, recently, the prestigious California State University Wang Family Excellence Award in May 2006.

City Building Education