Lost on the bypass road

Categories: Urban
I've been trying to think of a way to look at urban traffic problems and bypasses with my S4 classes. I was thinking of using a maps from memory activity from David Leats book based around Newcastle, but feel there are times in the year when I'd want to do this type of activity again and I don't want it to wear thin. This is a vague collection of other people's ideas which I hope I can put into a single lesson or two, but I may take the path more travelled if I assess this tomorrow and feel it won't work.
First up is an adaptation of a colleague Val Adams exercise for the lower school based around Disney Pixar's Cars. Val related Radiator Springs to a local bypass issue. Due to the year group, the students were given lots of potential advantages and disadvantages to sort, but as it's a more senior group, I'd like to see if the students can arrive at most of these themselves. Towards the close of the discussion, I'll present more potential choices to the group.
Secondly, I'm going to use Google Earth or wheresthepath, choose a local settlement and trace two potential bypass routes, ask the group to consider the same advantages/disadvantages, but using local knowledge, decide which route they would choose and why. I'm toying with the idea of impromptu audioboos on their choices.
Finally, as a homework exercise, I'd like to use Tony Cassidy's facebook templates to recap on the themes. We'll construct facebook pages for pro/anti-bypass campaigners. I'd like to see some simulated debate on wall posts, who would be likely to fan this page etc. As I say, we'll see what tomorrow brings, but would be nice to pull this off.