Competing Routes

For each of these ideas, I need to choose a specific area and design the lesson/unit around that, so that these plans can be used for skills as well as area/geography related.Goal: Get students to identify external influences on individuals - Using primary sources and historical data available through the DTT, gain insight into the outside influences effecting a specific individual in a debate about a topic in the BRP construction, such as the Cherokee area, Grandfather Mountain, Little Switzerland, etcetera. Using an animation program, such as Xtranormal, students could create a debate between multiple people, show the inner thoughts of one individual using the angel & devilGoal: Get students to understand the effects of the BRP and the New Deal on citizens of post WWII NC.-Students can research different areas near the BRP in groups to understand the issues specific to certain areas. This collaborative work will also give them the opportunity to build their knowledge with one another. Maybe they can use a wiki to collect their information. - Each student can present on a specific individual's life pre and post the construction of the BRP: Opportunity for digital storytellingGoal: Get students to understand the effects of the New deal and the BRP on the environment/landscape

Civilian Conservationcorps Deserves some attention

- What was the life of North Carolinians like during this time?- How would this affect the lives of locals?- What kind of popular support was there for the parkway?

The idea of contingency in history is that there were alternatives, history was not inevitable, and deliberate choices were made as the result of specific forces (social, economic, political).

Options:Students read two/three different perspectives on one decision being made in the process of the BRP planning, such as the Little Switzerland annexation of alnd, supported by Forzetting's Spicy Nodes- is there an overlook with that? If not, they write their own overlook, explaining what happened.Goal: Get students to determine the reality of the construction & design decisions on the surrounding property of the BRPThis should be tied to the ideas of Stanley Abbot: approximation- "The BRP should be designed so that it appears to fit naturally intot he landscape, a natural extension of the already present nature", whereas the reality is that there were severa adjustments made to the propoerty and landscape to accomodate the parkway, with more concern for the picture perfect appearance and less for the reality.

The idea that history is very much a social construction and we have to interpret documents, photographs and artifacts from the past.