SAFETY · GRADES 9-12 · 40-45 MIN
Route & Egress Study: Fire Safety & Public Management lesson plan
Students map two exit routes from a room, find the narrowest point, model a calm group walk, and propose one fix.
At a glance
Time: 40-45 min
Grades: Grades 9-12
Subject: Safety: Fire Safety & Public Management
Grouping: Teams of 4-6.
Space: A room plus two exit routes, about 30 ft each.
Teacher prep: 15 min printing + 35 min taping
Included: Teacher guide, student sheet, checks for understanding, exit ticket with answers
Open the printable lesson: teacher guide and student sheet →
Essential question
How do you find the hidden bottleneck in a building's escape routes before it becomes a real problem?
What students learn and show
Learn: Route capacity is limited by its narrowest point; redundancy (a second route) matters when one is blocked.
Show: Identify and measure a route's pinch point and justify one change with a before/after observation.
Objectives
Map primary and secondary evacuation routes on a floor plan
Measure route widths and identify the narrowest pinch point
Model how a group moves through a bottleneck at a calm pace
Propose and test one design change that improves flow
Before this lesson students should: Measuring in feet and inches; reading a floor plan.
Materials and prep
The 1:1 print
Tape measures
Clipboards
Painter's tape
The local building code occupant-load figure (teacher provides)
Prep (about 15 min to print, 35 min to tape)
Lay out the print or tape a room with two exits and connecting hallways.
Obtain the occupant-load factor from your local code reference if you will discuss capacity.
Copy the route log.
Space: A room plus two exit routes, about 30 ft each.
Grouping: Teams of 4-6.
Ways to run it: Painter's tape on the floor; 1:1 printed floor plan
Lesson procedure
Teacher model: Walk one route and stop at the narrowest point: 'Here it is 34 in. Everyone upstream has to slow down here. That is a bottleneck.'
Guided practice: Teams map both routes on paper and agree on the pinch point before measuring.
Teams identify the two farthest-apart exits and tape-arrow a primary and a secondary route from their assigned room to each.
Walk each route at a calm, deliberate pace and record the observations — turns, doors, and any obstacles.
Find the pinch: tape-measure the narrowest point on each route and predict what happens when a group reaches it.
Model the flow: the whole team walks the route together at a calm pace — no running — and notes where people stack up.
Redesign: propose one change (a door swing, furniture position, or route choice), re-walk it, and report the improvement. Use the occupant-load figure for the capacity discussion.
Checks for understanding
Ask: Why model the group walk separately from the solo walk? Look for: Bottlenecks appear under load: capacity is a property of the group.
Ask: What makes a point a bottleneck? Look for: The narrowest width relative to the flow trying to pass.
Ask: Why do many larger spaces require two exits? Look for: Redundancy: one route may be blocked. The number required depends on occupant load and use under the local code.
Exit ticket
Your route's widths are 44, 36 and 60 in. Where is the bottleneck? Answer: The 36-in point.
Propose one change and say how you would show it improves flow. Answer: A specific change plus a re-walk comparison (e.g., stacking observed before/after).
Scoring: Item 1: 1 point. Item 2: 2 points (change, evidence plan).
Common misconception
Students may think: Walking faster fixes a bottleneck.
Address it: Width limits flow; speed at the pinch point creates pushing. Calm pace is the safe rule.
Supports and extensions
Learning support: Assign the route-marshal role with a laminated checklist (mark the route, log observations).
Multilingual learners: Pre-teach 'exit', 'route', 'bottleneck' with cards walked before the study begins.
Mobility and access: Students can roll the route, guide a partner, or map flow with tokens on a tabletop plan; finding the pinch point stays the target.
Extension: Compare routes for a mobility-impaired occupant. Challenge: given the occupant load, calculate whether the exits provide adequate egress capacity.
Transfer task: Map two exits from the school library on its posted evacuation map.
Spaced review: Before the next drill, ask students to name their room's second route.
Standards connections
Connections show which skills the activity practices. They are not a claim of full coverage; see the library for scope notes.
Why this approach
In a navigation experiment, adults who physically walked a room-sized virtual space searched it almost perfectly (about 90% of trials), while people using a desktop display or only turning managed under half that rate. Limit: An adult virtual-reality study of search efficiency, not a classroom or design-learning study.
Ready to teach it?
The printable version has the full teacher guide, a student recording sheet, prep steps and an exit ticket. Open the printable lesson →
Need the floor plan itself? Get a 1:1 print quote.
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