Another model town created by teachers at a Marquette, Michigan, professional development workshop in March 2003. It reflects the culmination of Lesson 2 titled Explore Bigger Neighborhoods from the grade K-4 Unit of the Journey through the Universe Education Module Are There Other Neighborhood Like Our Own? Searching for Abodes of Life in the Universe.

Explore Bigger Neighborhoods addresses the essential question: “Why do we want to search for other neighborhoods like our own? As an extension to the first lesson, students explore whether the essential resources found in their neighborhood are created locally, or brought in from the outside—from neighborhoods beyond their own. They research the sources of the food they eat, the water they drink, and other resources, and recognize that the well-being of people in their neighborhood depends critically on resources found elsewhere—which is one of many motivations for humans to explore neighborhoods beyond their own. Using the model town they created in lesson 1, they now identify the resources that are coming in from other neighborhoods.