Students will be exploring the impact of road building and how that affected future American urbanization and prosperity. Students will conduct research cooperatively in groups of 3-4 while turning in individual papers and group maps.
Students will see how the thoughts and ambitions of one man, namely Harry Truman, helped spur the idea of roads in Missouri and what that contributed to the economic interdependence of life in the United States. It also demonstrates to the students how roads and highways can significantly impact transportation and the movement of goods throughout a large place.
- Research Truman's program on road building and submit a 1-2 page reflection on their opinion of how these roads contributed to urban development and prosperity within Missouri and how that spread to a national level
- Work with a group to develop hypothetical road system map(s) that shows advantage of roads over the absence of roads
- Identify major economic and geographic factors at play when improving infrastructure with road building and contrast those with an environment that has an absence of roads and an ineffective infrastructure
Missouri Standards
2. Continuity and change in the history of Missouri, the United States and the world
4. Economic concepts (including productivity and the market system) and principles (including the laws of supply and demand)
5. The major elements of geographical study and analysis (such as location, place, movement, regions) and their relationships to changes in society and environment
6. Relationships of the individual and groups to institutions and cultural traditions
Kansas Standards
Benchmark 3: The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of individuals, groups, ideas, developments, and turning points in the era of the Cold War (1945-1990).
5. (A) analyzes domestic life in the United States during the Cold War era (e.g., McCarthyism, federal aid to education, interstate highway system, space as the New Frontier, Johnson’s Great Society).
- Alonzo Hamby A Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman
- Nation of Nations: A Narrative History of the American Republic Davidson, Gienapp, Stoff, McGraw Hill 2005, pp. 919-940
- Various Internet Resources Available to students for research
- If found, primary source information from the internet
Internet Access
- In the middle of discussing the chapter (New Deal) with the students, I will introduce the project and will hand out a rubric for their maps, research, as well as their papers. Outlines of the project will also be distributed. Students will be assigned groups of 3-4. While students are researching the material, I will remind them to create effective "before and after" maps of a region, or state, showing the difference in development and prosperity, and how quickly, or slowly, items can be transported from one place to the next. After finishing the maps, each student will present their maps to the class in their groups and at that time will also turn in a final research paper of 1-2 pages.
- For each part of the assignment, research, map, and paper, I will be giving individual grades. I will likely grade students on their research based on group participation while utilizing the portable computer lab. They will also be turning in peer-group evaluations that will help me get a better idea. The research grade will also include accuracy and a sufficient amount of outside resources. For the paper, I will be grading it on completeness, a full 5-body style (with intro, body, and conclusion) as well as on a cited sources page. It must accurately reflect their own thoughts as well as what we discussed prior in class and must make a full case for why the roads program was effective and helped Truman. For the maps, I will primarily be giving an overall grade for completion, for neatness on the maps, and creativity in depicting their roads.