Classroom activity Grade 12 Health & Consumer Science
Vennick Flooded-Road Stations: Storm Decisions for New Drivers
A grade 12 health activity in which teams rotate through six storm stations in a fictional town, deciding whether to drive, wait, or wade and defending each choice.
Objectives
- Students will identify the hidden hazards of driving or walking through floodwater, including strong currents, washed-out roads, open drains, and contaminated water.
- Students will combine information from gauge readings, alerts, maps, and scene descriptions to choose the safest action at each station.
- Students will prepare a specific response to a passenger or friend who pressures them to cross flooded water.
Vocabulary
Key words: flash flood, low-water crossing, washout, flash flood warning, floodwater contamination, carbon monoxide
Teacher overview
This is a six-station rotation for teams of four or five students in a class of 24 to 30, built around a fictional evening thunderstorm in the town of Vennick. Each station card presents one decision a new driver or passenger might face, such as a flooded low-water crossing on Stellbrook Creek, a parking garage taking on water, or a friend who wants help pushing a stalled car through a flooded intersection. Each card also carries a short set of sources, such as a rain gauge table, an emergency alert, a map note, and a scene description, and teams must combine them, choose an action, and record which source settled the question. Because each station isolates one hazard, the rotation covers the main flood risks a new driver is likely to meet in the first years behind the wheel.
The central misconception is that a heavy vehicle or a careful driver can get through water that looks shallow. Moving water can push a car sideways or lift it, the road under the water can be washed out with no sign at the surface, and water deep enough to stall an engine can trap the people inside. A second, health-focused misconception is that floodwater is only a drowning risk. Floodwater also carries sewage, chemicals, and sharp debris, and the cleanup that follows a flood brings its own dangers, including infected wounds, electric shock, and carbon monoxide from gas-powered equipment used indoors.
Activity Directions
- Before class, post the six station cards from the Student Handout around the room, spaced far enough apart that two teams do not crowd one card. Give each team one decision sheet ruled into six boxes labeled Station 1 through Station 6.
- Take about five minutes to explain how the rotation works and answer questions: each station is one moment from the same fictional storm night in Vennick, and each is built around one hidden hazard. At each station the team reads every source on the card, chooses option A, B, or C, or writes a better option of its own, and records three things in that station's box: the decision, the source that mattered most, and one reason a teammate or passenger might push back.
- Assign each team a starting station so that every station has one team. Start the timer for 5 minutes.
- When the timer sounds, teams rotate clockwise to the next station and the timer restarts. Remind teams that the decision must be the team's, so a split vote should be recorded along with the reason the team settled it.
- Continue until every team has completed all six stations, which takes 30 minutes. The activity ends when the sixth rotation is done; collect the decision sheets or have teams keep them for the debrief.
- Debrief as a whole class for 12 minutes. Go station by station, asking one team to report its decision before revealing the recommended action from the Answer Key. Then ask two closing questions: "At which station was the real danger invisible from where you were standing, and which source revealed it?" and "Which station was hardest to decide, and was the difficulty in the evidence or in the people around you?"
- For the last 3 minutes, each student writes on an index card the exact words they would use to refuse a ride, or to refuse to drive, through flooded water, in a way that a friend would find hard to argue with. Collect the cards.
Student Handout
All places, readings, and messages on these cards are fictional and describe one storm night in the town of Vennick.
Station 1: The Stellbrook Creek crossing
You are driving home at 9:40 p.m. on Pashley Road, which dips down to cross Stellbrook Creek. Water is flowing across the road. The painted depth post at the edge is half underwater, and in your headlights the road on the far side looks normal. A pickup truck just made it across.
- Rain gauge (upstream of the crossing): 0.4 inches from 6 to 7 p.m., 1.1 inches from 7 to 8 p.m., 0.9 inches from 8 to 9 p.m.
- Phone alert at 8:55 p.m.: "Flash Flood Warning for Vennick until 11:30 p.m. Move to higher ground. Do not drive through flooded roads."
- Map note: the Route 31 bridge crosses the creek on high ground and adds 12 minutes to your trip.
Options: A. Follow the truck's path slowly. B. Park at the edge and wait for the water to go down. C. Turn around and take the Route 31 bridge.
Station 2: The downtown parking garage
You are leaving a movie at 10:05 p.m. Your car is on the lowest level of a parking garage. Water is running down the entrance ramp and is already over the tires of cars near the bottom of the ramp, and it is rising.
- Garage sign: "Lower level floods during heavy rain. Do not enter when water is present."
- Phone alert: the Flash Flood Warning is still in effect.
- Scene note: the stairwell to street level is next to your car, and the street outside is on a hill.
Options: A. Drive the car up and out now before the water gets deeper. B. Leave the car, take the stairs to street level, and call for a ride. C. Sit in the car with the engine running until the water drops.
Station 3: The stalled car at Cheverel and Oak
A friend texts you from two blocks away. His car stalled in a flooded intersection and he is standing on the curb, dry and unhurt. He asks you to wade out and help him push the car.
- Scene note: the water is brown and knee-deep, and it is moving toward a storm drain at the corner.
- City alert: "In low areas, some storm drain and manhole covers may have lifted off. Stay out of floodwater."
- Weather note: rain has slowed but has not stopped.
Options: A. Wade out and push the car to the curb. B. Tell him to stay on the curb, and call a tow service or the city's non-emergency line. C. Drive your own car in close enough to pull his out.
Station 4: Stalled in rising water
You are a passenger. The driver tried to cross a flooded underpass and the engine died partway through. Water is rising around the doors but is not yet inside, and the car has not started to move.
- Scene note: the water around the car is moving slowly. The road rises to dry pavement about 20 steps behind the car.
- Phone: you have signal.
Options: A. Stay buckled in, call 911, and wait for rescue. B. Unbuckle, open the windows while the power still works, get out, and walk back to the dry pavement, then call 911. C. Keep trying to restart the engine.
Station 5: The basement the next morning
You are helping a relative clear a flooded basement. The water smells like sewage, you have a fresh cut on your hand, and electrical outlets near the furnace are underwater. Someone suggests borrowing a gas-powered pump and running it inside the basement to finish faster.
- Scene note: the power to the house is still on.
- Health department notice: "Floodwater may contain sewage and chemicals. Wear boots and gloves, and wash hands with soap and clean water."
Options: A. Wade in barefoot and start bailing, since you will wash afterward. B. Wait until the power is shut off by the utility or an electrician, cover the cut with a waterproof bandage, wear boots and gloves, and keep any gas-powered equipment outdoors. C. Run the gas pump inside with the basement door open.
Station 6: Three friends and the underpass
You are driving three friends home after a game. The usual route goes under a railroad underpass, and it is flooded. One friend says, "Everyone drives through this. It's fine. We'll be late if you go around."
- Map note: the detour through the Brackley Street neighborhood adds 15 minutes.
- Scene note: you cannot see the lane lines under the water.
- Your family's rule: text a parent if the route changes.
Options: A. Drive through slowly with the hazard lights on. B. Pull over where it is safe, tell your friends you are taking the detour, text a parent, and go around. C. Let the friend who wants to go through drive.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: C. Turn around and take the Route 31 bridge.
The gauge shows a sharp burst of upstream rain, and the alert is a Flash Flood Warning, so the creek is likely still rising. The truck's safe crossing does not show that the road beneath is intact, and a lighter car can be pushed or floated by water a truck gets through. Option B is better than A but still leaves the car beside a rising creek in the dark. - Answer: B. Leave the car, take the stairs, and call for a ride.
The water is rising and already over tires, and the garage sign warns that the level floods. A car is replaceable, and driving up a ramp against flowing water risks stalling in the entrance. Waiting in a running car in a closed garage also risks exhaust buildup. - Answer: B. Tell him to stay on the curb and call a tow service or the non-emergency line.
The alert warns of lifted drain and manhole covers, which cannot be seen under brown water, and moving water toward a drain can pull a person off their feet. Floodwater may also carry sewage. Option C puts a second car and driver in the same water. - Answer: B. Unbuckle, open the windows, get out, and walk back to the dry pavement, then call 911.
Rising water can soon make the doors impossible to open and can lift the car. Getting out while the water is slow and dry ground is close is safer than waiting. If the water outside had been fast or deep, the safer choice would be to climb onto the roof and call 911, and debrief discussion should bring out that difference. - Answer: B. Wait for the power to be shut off, protect the cut, wear boots and gloves, and keep gas equipment outdoors.
Live outlets underwater can cause electric shock, sewage in floodwater can infect an open cut, and gas-powered engines produce carbon monoxide, which can build up to deadly levels indoors even with a door open. - Answer: B. Pull over safely, announce the detour, text a parent, and go around.
The lane lines are hidden, so the depth is unknown, and the driver is responsible for every passenger. Option C only moves the risk to another driver. Strong teams write down a short, firm line such as "I'm not driving through water I can't see the bottom of. We're going around." - Answer: For the first debrief question, Stations 1, 3, and 4 usually draw the most discussion as places where the danger was hidden.
At Station 1 the washout risk and rising creek were visible only through the gauge and alert, and at Station 3 the lifted drain covers were known only from the city alert. Accept any station if the student names the source that revealed the hidden hazard. - Answer: For the second debrief question, accept any station with a reason, though most classes name Station 6.
Station 6 usually splits teams because the evidence is clear while the social pressure is strong. Use responses to connect back to the exit card: a prepared sentence makes the safe choice easier in the moment.
Differentiation
Support
Give struggling readers a version of each card with the sources set in a three-row table labeled "Data," "Alert," and "What you see," and highlight the one sentence on each card that carries the key hazard. Let the team's strongest reader read each card aloud at the start of the rotation.
Extension
Ask students to redesign one station so that the recommended answer changes, for example by moving the dry pavement farther away at Station 4 or by making the water fast-moving, and to write the new recommended action with a justification. Then have them draft a short message a driving school could send to new drivers before storm season.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "flash flood," "warning," "stall," "detour," "sewage," and "carbon monoxide" with pictures and simple gestures. Provide the decision frame "We chose ___ because the ___ shows ___." Pair each English learner with a partner who can read the card aloud, and accept decisions recorded as option letters plus one key word from the source.
Extensions
Have students find their state or local emergency management agency's guidance on driving during floods and compare it with the recommended actions in this activity. Students can then map one road near the school or their home that floods or crosses a creek, and plan an alternate route in advance.