By Joanie Harmon, UCLA School of Ed & IS News
Design-Based Learning and the World Building Framework guides Pasadena middle school students in a place-based actions civics experience.
A pilot program, “UCLA Young Leaders at PCC,” imagines how urban planning would look if it included the perspectives of young people, using their voices to create communities they would be happy to grow up in and possibly, remain a part of. Held for ten days in July at Pasadena City College, the camp integrated history-social science, science, and Design-Based Learning to offer middle school students a meaningful place-based action civics experience. The collaboration was made possible with support from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation.
Using their own city as an entry point, students from across Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) were placed in teams to answer real-world issues that cities face, including homelessness, climate change, sustainability, food scarcity, and disaster recovery.
“UCLA Young Leaders reflects UCLA Center X’s commitment to working with and learning alongside communities,” said Lynn Kim, executive director of Center X. “We want students to engage with local history and context, ask meaningful questions, and respond to real challenges. At the heart of this work is student voice and agency—helping young people see that their ideas and experiences matter, develop their identities as learners, and recognize their power to shape their communities.”
UCLA Center X researchers designed the Young Leaders program using expertise across the University. Danny Diaz, director of the History-Geography Project, Zachary Cue, director of the Science Project, and Dave Cameron, interim director of the Design-Based Learning Project, leveraged the World Building Framework created by UCLA Professor of Education Nicole Mirra, as well as the work of planning departments in Santa Monica and Pasadena, which have addressed histories of displacement via restrictive housing covenants and urban renewal programs.
“Pasadena provided the ideal community to pilot the Young Leaders program,” said Diaz. “The city’s proximity to UCLA and its existing institutional connections facilitated deep research into the historical impact of freeway construction on the displacement of communities of color.”
To further support their inquiry, the students used research from UCLAs Institute of Transportation Studies, including a storymap titled, “Freeways, Redlining, and Racism: A History of Pasadena and its Freeways in the 20th Century,” and the report, “Exposing Freeway Inequalities in the Suburbs: The Cases of Pasadena and Pacoima.” In addition, the student teams’ knowledge was enhanced by a recent UCLA Magazine article on how UCLA scientists are helping to better understand the dangers of increasing temperatures, and why shade is a secret weapon in mitigating the dangers of increasing temperatures.
Students were given context from a “community icon” that provided a lived experience from which to build a city that welcomes all. Examining the life of legendary athlete Jackie Robinson and his family’s struggles with racism despite the end of redlining, enhanced their historical inquiry as they studied the development of the 210 Freeway in the 1960 through Northwest Pasadena, using UCLA research.