Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center
Project Location: Monona Terrace and in Dane County, WI classrooms
Number of Participants: 1200
Age of Participants: Grades K-6
Team Members: Heather Sabin, 48 volunteer mentors from local architecture and planning firms, 20 volunteer docents, Dreux Watermolen of the Dept of Natural Resources, Jennifer Masengarb from the Chicago Architecture Foundation

Terrace Town, now in it's 6th year, is a hands-on, “green” learning program that runs through the school year and serves over 1,000 Dane County WI students in grades K-6. Students learn about architecture, design, and “green” city planning throughout the year, and then each participating classroom creates their own sustainable "box" city. The biennial program culminates with a two-day event in early spring that offers an opportunity for students to share with eachother and the public what was learned over the months leading up to the event. Over 45 architects and planning professionals volunteer their time as mentors who travel to schools and train students through a series of free workshops. Mentors receive a comprehensive toolkit to help with their training sessions. In addition, mini-workshops are offered to teachers that consist of techniques and tools to incorporate sustainable built environment concepts into their curriculum. The students then work together in the culminating design and construction of a “box city” made out of a variety of recycled materials.

Day one of the culminating event features the School Building Day where over 1,000 Dane County WI school children install their cities in the Exhibit Hall at Monona Terrace. The celebration is enhanced with live music and additional learning activities, and is facilitated by our tourism coordinator and a crew of about 20 docents. On day two of the event, the public is invited to view the cities, create their own sustainable city, and celebrate the students’ work. Terrace Town impacts not only students and teachers, but also the community at large.

The program has a three-fold outcome:
    A. Students learn the skills to evaluate their environments, and acquire knowledge about sustainable city planning in an effort to improve their own schools and communities. In the long term, future city planners will be equipped with the tools to help citizens and their communities make a lighter footprint on our planet.
    B. Teachers receive training from experts in the field of sustainable community planning and learn ways to incorporate the information, methods and practices into their cross-disciplinary elementary curriculum.
    C. The public event component, as well as media coverage of Terrace Town, offers the opportunity for the general public to learn about the importance of sustainable practices through the box city display and the stories from each participating class. Through education, we can empower people with the knowledge of how to live with less energy and material waste, and help make the Earth a better place for the green leaders of tomorrow. The next Terrace Town will take place in April of 2012.

Outcomes and Evaluation of the Project
Monona Terrace collects data from surveys prior to the start of each program year, to assess the needs of teachers in that particular year. In addition, surveys are sent to teachers and mentors after the program to gather information for the next program year. In 2008, face to face focus groups were led by a professional facilitator to gather feedback from teachers and mentors who had participated in past Terrace Town programs. The study was conducted to educate the program planner as how to better serve a quickly growing audience, as well as the curricular needs of teachers. Over the past 10 years (6 events), the program has successfully grown to its current level based on this valuable feedback that has been collected. In the future, goals are to better prepare mentors with improved tool kits for the classroom, and to better accommodate a continually growing audience of teachers who want to participate.

Additional Information
Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center is a community focal point with a mission to be a high quality, customer-focused facility that serves as a community gathering place, a tourism destination, and a catalyst for economic activity for the city of Madison, Dane County and the State of Wisconsin. Each year, Monona Terrace provides free and low cost events that serve over 30,000 people each year. Community programs such as Concerts on the Rooftop, Lakeside Kids, the Wright Lecture Series, Full Speed Ahead After 50, T'ai Chi, as well as architectural outreach programs and daily tours, offer unique learning and entertainment opportunities, as well as the ability to explore, learn, and celebrate in an iconic facility designed by Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright.