In Virginia, my 5th graders have to know the basic parts of a living animal cell (nucleus, cytoplasm, cell membrane, vacuole) and their functions. In class, I have them do analogies to compare the parts of a cell to the parts of a school and the parts of a mall - it really gets their minds thinking about how such unlike things can be similar based on their functions. Likewise, this project asks students to pick either a futuristic city, medieval castle, a computer, or their house and compare t