This project extends the traditional 3 R's to include The New 3 R's of the Twenty-first Century. Students relate, represent, and reason to create posters that communicate the potential affects of a planned road realignment project in their community.
Interviews give varied perspectives of community members who wish to keep the land intact.
Questions regarding the effects of this construction project raise concerns of urban sprawl, habitat degradation, and loss of quality of life enjoyed over 100 years. Students with a digital camera and GPS unit relate data to expeditions in the field and use GIS software to create hotlinks to pictures of roads, species habitat, and accident sites. The software arranges, displays, and answers questions with maps, charts, and tables. Students interact with the data, zoom in and out of maps, add thematic layers, and study details and relationships. Students examine the effects of the roadway, consider alternative solutions, and present their findings on a poster produced for community awareness at the Connecting Our Community meeting with citizens and county officials.