Build a road? How?

Don’t worry if you don’t have any experience as a construction worker or city planner. We will provide you with all the necessary elements to make good decisions about the road you are going to build.

The meeting

We taped a meeting between the Director of Transport for the tri-state area and an environmental specialist. They discuss some potential problem areas where building the new road would be harmful to the environment.

Before watching the video, questions will be made available on the website. These questions will draw your attention to some important facts regarding the new road. You should download these questions and answer them. Though they won’t be graded, the answers to these questions will be helpful later when you are writing your report.

The press conference

We recorded a state senator as she discussed the benefits of the new road at a press conference. She tells us a quite a bit about the tri-state area as well as certain deadlines for building the new road.

Before listening to the senator’s speech, questions will be made available on the website. These questions will draw your attention to some important facts regarding the new road. You should download these questions and answer them. Though they won’t be graded, the answers to these questions will be helpful later when you are writing your report.

The sponsor’s letter

The sponsor writes to you and gives you very important details that will make building the new road possible

The forum

-The Forum is where you’ll go to discuss and verify facts about the meeting, the press conference and the sponsor’s letter with members of your group.

-After the presentation of the first two parts (the meeting, the press conference), your teachers will be available to answer any of your questions on the group forum. A date and time will be given once the project starts.

You and your group’s findings

In collaboration with the other members of your group, you will discuss and agree on what you discover about the new road. Your findings will take all the varying factors into account; the environmental obstacles, the timing constraints and the budget. Once you arrive at the University of Cincinnati, your current group will be split up and new groups of four people will be formed. With your new group, you will be asked to share your information about your section of the road. Your new group members will, in turn, tell you what they know about their sections of the road. Next, you will return to your old group in order to discuss and verify all the information you have acquired.

The report

After talking to all the members of your original group, and taking everything into account, you will write a persuasive report describing the decisions you will have made about the road. With this report, you will be trying to persuade in a professional manner all of the city councils in the tri-state area (ex. the Aurora city council, the Burlington city council, etc.) that you are conscious of the obstacles and that, ultimately, everyone will benefit from the building of the new road. You will need to be successful in persuading the different city councils, because, if not, they will not approve the construction of the new road. Each student will be responsible for writing a report. Helpful documents concerning report writing will be given once the project starts and one of your UC English classes will be dedicated to report writing. This class will be based on these documents, so we recommend that you read and understand them.

Evaluation

You will be assessed on your work in two main areas:

1. Your performance-From the beginning of the project until the end, your participation on the forums and in the classroom will be evaluated. However, it is important to know that this is a grade based much more on your active participation than the overall correctness of your English.

2. The outcome-The outcome will be the final product of your work. You will be asked to write a persuasive report and to make a brief oral presentation of this report. As opposed to the grade you will be receiving for your performance, the report and its presentation will be graded for the content and for accurate use of the English language.

A grading rubric will be made available once the project starts. This will give you the details of what will be expected in your work.

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