Students can investigate and interpret the historical and cultural significance of places in their community. Abstract concepts and broad issues they study in textbooks are transformed into tangible realities and intriguing stories about their everyday world. Students can also explore faraway places and discover the connections between these places and their own community. Schools, preservationists, museum and site interpreters, and others can work together to help the community appreciate its history and culture and find ways to take care of places that have special meaning. Places like this help students investigate how the automobile influenced popular culture.
Roadways provide complex and sometimes humorous documentation of a community's popular culture.
Each lesson uses a place listed in the National Register of Historic Places to teach a topic usually included in the social studies curriculum. . The focus of the lesson links a dramatic story of the place to larger themes, issues, and events in history. They explore how transportation routes in Virginia have changed since then. Learning objectives encourage students to practice basic and critical thinking skills. . The lesson integrates historical, cultural, environmental, technological, and aesthetic perspectives on the place. .