Social Studies Lesson Plan

Overview:When a bus carrying the entire baseball team from a small Ohio university plunged over a guard rail in Atlanta and crashed on the highway below on its way to a tournament, it was a tragedy. But when reports started coming in that the same intersection had been the site of 82 other accidents, the situation created a broader concern. Are some locations just more dangerous than others? What do government officials do about these situations? Who is responsible? Are there dangerous sites in your community?

Suggested time allotment: Two weeks to explore information about dangerous local sites, both through online sources and through interviews. One week to develop a plan to present to the proper authorities.

Objectives

Students will:

1. Read news articles for background about the Atlanta crash, particularly what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found by checking state transportation databases.
2. Explore what is available about their own community and state.
3. Interview area police and insurance agents to see if they can name local high-accident areas.
4. Explore what can be done if a site has multiple accidents.
5. Draw up a proposal to go to the state transportation board or similar body responsible for dangerous intersections.
6. Develop a strategic plan to encourage the agency to make the changes.
a. Suggest a way to improve the site
b. Find out who needs to see and approve such changes
c. Arrange to meet with this person or group.
d. Present the students’ views.

Curriculum Standards from the National Council for the Social Studies: Thematic Strands, from “Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies.”
• VI — Power, authority and governance. Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance…. High school students develop their abilities in the use of abstract principles. They study the various systems that have been developed over the centuries to allocate and employ power and authority in the governing process. At every level, learners should have opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills to and participate in the workings of the various levels of power, authority, and governance.

Resources and materials:
Web sites with information:
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution latest article when these lesson plans were posted was “Answers few as bus victims return home,” by Ariel Hart, Jennifer Brett, Aixa Pascual and Andrea, Jones, March 5, 2007. This focuses on what the National Transportation Safety Board representative suggested about the dangerous site.
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• Another AJC story is headlined “Ramp exit sign could be a ‘killer,” by Ariel Hart, March 5, 2007.
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• Read the ESPN Web site article about the Bluffton crash with an emphasis on what the road dangers are: “Feds say college bus crash site had many accidents,” March 4, 2007.
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• Watch a package about three most dangerous intersections in Lawrence, Kansas, by Laura McHugh, Feb. 2, 2007.
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• One man who lost his wife and mother-in-law because of an accident at a poorly marked intersection in Ohio gives his view of the situation to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper in this transcript from June 23, 2003.
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• Because most roads like this are the responsibility of the state department of transportation, find your state’s Web site and explore information about crash sites. For Ohio, to find crash facts by year, go to the following site. By downloading the most recent report – 2005 – you can get a 144-page pdf with all the crash sites in the state.
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