The Roman Road Project - A Happy Update on an Unhappy Anniversary

Tonight is the anniversary of our Roman road getting ruined by a Mardi Gras reveler.

The Southdowns neighborhood Mardi Gras parade is set to roll this evening, and as I sit here in my classroom working on a professional development day, I look out my window to our beautiful little project and reminisce.

Over two months last school year, my Roman Technology students built a 160-foot-long sidewalk in the building style of a Roman road. The space needed an upgrade, nearly unusable due to flooding during rainy seasons. During January and February of last year, we learned how ancient Roman engineers and soldiers measured, surveyed, and constructed roads. We worked our hearts out with the help of our local Department of Transportation and Development and their stellar research director, Dr. Tyson Rupnow. We put the finishing touches on the concrete and walked away for Mardi Gras break.

When we returned the next week, someone had ridden a bike through the wet concrete leaving deep and unfixable ruts, and everyone was angry. I wrote about it on this blog post which got almost 400 views. We fixed the ruts using bronze-colored resin and moved on.

And now a year later, I look back on this project with great affection. Our little road is used daily by many students traversing our long campus, just getting from the front of the school to the back. But far more than its pedestrian use, our little road has become an event location on campus. During our school's Diwali celebration in November, the activities happened along the Roman Road - face painting, calligraphy, Indian food, and dancing! The art teacher asked if her students might decorate the stepping stones that line the road with colorful mandalas. Absolutely!! Our little road has achieved its purpose...and at least one of the purposes of an ancient Roman road: to bring people together.