PBL 1: Roads and Bridges

My first problem to solve involved making a presentation aimed at increasing the excitement of children to learn about ancient Rome. The facts involved in the presentation had to be focused on Roman roads and bridges. The topics to be included about roads and bridges were construction, art, history, and uses.

Since there were four of us in the group, we decided that each of us should research one of the four major topics. Since I am a civil engineering student, I took the topic of construction. From our research, each one of us created an outline.

For the presentation, we looked for a way that would most interest children. We decided that we should create a road that lead the audience through time, into ancient Rome. The presenters would then be dressed up and acting as Roman characters. This way, the character would be able to keep the children's attention, and the children would learn more about ancient Rome, since we would be acting as historical Romans.

We created a character to act as the keeper of the Road into Ancient Rome. Her job was to set the story, talk about history, and introduce the other characters. The other characters would be actual Romans, each one talking about how they relate to roads and bridges. Pliny the Elder, a historian and great lover of art, would talk about the influence of Roman roads and bridges on art. Pompey, a politition, would talk about the uses of roads. And I would be Scipio Africanus, a famed Roman general, who would talk about the construction of roads and bridges.

We created a powerpoint to hold a short video introducing our topic and all the pictures that each of us would be using in the presentation.

As an extra visual aid, we made a layered dessert that would help children visualize the layers in constructing a road. The three layers of the road were represented by a layer of brownie, a layer of cake, and a top layer of cookies and icing to represent the paving stones set in concrete.

A quiz was also made to be given at the end of the presentation. The audience would be split into teams, and the team with the most questions right would win the road cake.