Grades 6-8Grades 6-8

Unit 1, Lesson 2

Transportation and the Environment: Impacts, Choices, Results

Today, people travel much more than in the past. Whether by rockets or rollerblades, energy of one form or another is required, and these different forms of energy affect our environment in different ways. As this lesson progresses, students will become aware of the ways they move themselves around, what forms of energy they use, and the impact of their transportation choices on the environment. Students will learn that the burning of fossil fuels plays a major role in polluting our air and changing the world's climate. They should also realize that there are alternatives that are better for the environment.

Objectives:

The students will:

  • collect and record transportation data from daily experience,
  • analyze and compare personal transportation habits to those of the class,
  • classify components of a technological system (in this case a transportation system), and
  • compare environmental costs and benefits of various forms of transportation.

TEKS:

Mathematics

  • Grade 6: 1A, 1C, 4A, 10D
  • Grade 7: 1A, 2B, 11A-B
  • Grade 8: 1A-B, 2A-B, 11C, 12A-C

Social Studies

  • Grade 6: 20B-C, 21B-C, 21F
  • Grade 7: 20A, 20F
  • Grade 8: 10A-B, 12B, 28B, 28D

Time:

  • Activity 1:
    Homework, minimum one hour over three to four days, ideally spanning one week. Personal transportation log analysis, 30 minutes in class.
  • Activity 2:
    45 minutes in class

Materials:

  • Activity 1:
    Worksheets and log for each student, local map with mileage scale, and string to measure mileage
  • Activity 2:
    Completed Personal Transportation Logs (Activity 1 homework), Technology Systems Worksheet (one per student), and calculators (optional)

Teacher Preparation:

Before beginning this lesson, students should have an understanding of percentages and of energy and work. This lesson can also be used to reinforce a lesson on percentages.

Few of us think about how we transport ourselves from one place to another, but the choices we make have definite impacts upon our society and the environment.

In this lesson students will focus their attention on their own transportation choices and patterns by keeping a Personal Transportation Log. By doing simple calculations and by constructing a class chart, the students will be able to make comparisons between their own transportation habits and those of the class. Students will begin to consider the social and environmental costs and benefits associated with different modes of travel. This information will serve as the basis for later lessons, during which the exploration of transportation issues continues. Students will be evaluated on individual, small group, and whole class work by completing Personal Transportation Logs and worksheets, and by participating in class discussions.

Activity 1
Personal Transportation Log - Assemble materials, establish small groups, and prepare a class chart.

Activity 2
Transportation Systems - Read the teacher background information and assemble materials.

Directions:

Background Information
Transportation is the process of moving people and products from one place to another. Where once human beings could get from point A to point B only by walking, we can now choose from many options. We even transport ourselves for recreation and exercise.

Moving things from here to there can be thought of as a transportation system. A system includes a goal, input, process, output, and feedback. The simplest transportation system is the act of walking to a destination – say to a river to get a drink of water. In this case the goal is to move oneself to the river. The input needed to do this includes a living body supplied with adequate food, water, and oxygen along with the knowledge of how to get to the river. In this case the transportation process is to convert the food, water, and oxygen into the energy needed to get to the river and then decide on what route to take and walk. The output is getting to the river, along with sweat, heat, and exhaled carbon dioxide and other gases. In this case let's imagine that our person chose to hike over a hill to get to the river. The feedback may be that the hill was too steep and that, in the future, this person will decide to take a path around the hill to get to the river. The transportation system is redesigned to meet a revised goal – to move oneself to the river using less effort.

Many aspects of today's transportation systems are actually outputs from other complex systems. Gasoline comes from oil that must be extracted, transported to refineries, and processed. This system itself relies on political, economic, and military systems that ensure companies maintain access to foreign oil. The refined gasoline must then be transported to local gas stations. Vehicles also need to be manufactured. To manufacture them, minerals need to be extracted from the earth and processed into useable forms. The finished vehicles need to be transported from one location to another. Consider too the infrastructure necessary (bridges, roads, railways, etc.), creative processes of designing vehicles to carry people and goods, marketing schemes, road systems, and traffic rules for organization and safety.

As you can see, identifying all the components of a technology system can be challenging and confusing. The important point is for students to begin to see the larger picture of the pieces that need to be in place for a technology system to work, in this case a transportation system. Use the following examples to help students understand parameters for defining a
transportation technology system with regard to goals, input, process, output, and feedback.

  • GOALS: A primary goal of any transportation system is to move products and people from point A to point B. Today, we can add recreation as another goal for some transportation systems. Less obvious, but just as important, goals of transportation systems are that they be low cost, get us to our destinations on schedule and in a timely fashion, be safe, and be comfortable. Increasingly, many people would also like our transportation systems to be as close to pollution free as possible and be independent of foreign-controlled resources, such as Middle East oil.

    flowchart - Goals = what you want. Input = what you use. Processes = what has to be done. Outputs = we got there and at what cost. Feedback = how can we do it better. Goals flow into Inputs and into Processes. Inputs flow into Processes. Processes flow into Outputs. The Outputs flow into Feedback. The Feedback then flows back into Goals.

  • INPUTS: Gasoline, cars, minivans, roads, bridges, and drivers are all inputs into the United States's most popular transportation system – getting around in family vehicles. Each of these inputs rely on additional complex systems such as: (1) mining metals and processing petroleum; (2) designing, manufacturing, and transporting gasoline, cars, and trucks; (3) designing and building roads and bridges; and (4) staffing teachers, police, and the court system to train and monitor drivers for a safe transportation system. We can also add automotive repair, financial, insurance, and medical systems needed to maintain both cars and drivers.
  • PROCESSES: Converting fuel into motion is the most basic process of any transportation system. But other processes are important to maintain a safe, low-cost, low-pollution, timely transportation system. Safely driving the family car depends on systems that enforce traffic rules, educate drivers, and maintain roadways. Financial systems are needed to finance the purchase of new cars. Emissions regulations are needed to prevent too much pollution.
  • OUTPUTS: Moving products or people from one place to another is the central output of any transportation system. But many systems have unwanted outputs as well. Pollution, time spent stuck in traffic, spending money on insurance, fuel, and car maintenance are a few examples.
  • FEEDBACK: How well is your transportation system working? Do you get to school on time or are you often stuck in traffic? Is your old car or bicycle still comfortable and safe? Do you spend too much money on insurance and car maintenance? Are there alternative transportation systems, or can you modify your current system in order to provide yourself with more of the desired outputs and less of the unwanted ones? Feedback enables you to evaluate the system and modify your goals.

Forms of travel relying on human power have a relatively minimal impact on the environment. The energy required comes from the food the travelers eat. Because more food can be grown on the same land, food is a renewable energy source. In contrast, fossil fuels are not renewable in that it took millions of years to create them.

The invention of the automobile has had an enormous impact on the world. Although it offers amazing individual freedom, it has costs, such as:

  • mining and manufacturing;
  • changing our communities: urban sprawl, suburbia, paving significant amounts of land, families spread far and wide, less contact with neighbors;
  • pollution: air (emissions), water (run-off, oil leaks, and spills); land (mining, landfills), noise, global climate change; and
  • health and safety: pollution, accidents (high death rate), road rage.

Any form of transportation that relies on fossil fuels contributes to many of these problems, but vanpools, buses, and trains are generally far more efficient and less polluting.

It is also possible to build vehicles that don't use fossil fuels but instead use cleaner fuels, such as alcohol and methane, or even wind and sun. Electric vehicles are a growing reality and, even when plugged in to today's fossil-fuel-powered electric grid, they produce roughly half the pollution of a comparable internal combustion engine vehicle. Also, the pollution is shifted from cities, people, and roadsides to the power plant. If the power plant relies on renewable energy sources such as sun, wind, hydro, or geothermal, then emissions for the entire system are reduced much more dramatically.

ACTIVITY 1 - PERSONAL TRANSPORTATION LOG

Activity Overview
Students will come to understand their own transportation choices and patterns by keeping a Personal Transportation Log. By analyzing their own and their classmates' transportation habits, students will begin to realize how their behavior compares to that of others in their community. This information will serve as the basis for later lessons during which the exploration of transportation issues continues.

Activity
Discuss the following with the class:

  • What are some ways you use to move yourselves from place to place?
    Cars, bikes, rollerblades, walking, school buses, etc., are all "modes" of transportation.
  • Which mode do you use most often?
    Have the students make predictions after considering all modes available to them. What percentages of their transportation needs do car, bicycle, walking, etc., meet? For example, 30 percent car, 30 percent school bus, 15 percent walking, and 25 percent bicycling.

For homework, ask students to collect data regarding their own transportation habits. Pass out and review the Personal Transportation Log so students are clear about what is expected. This assignment might extend over a weekend or cover an entire week. Try to include at least one school day.

To complete the log the students will need to include the date, purpose of the trip, where they started and finished that particular trip, and the number of miles traveled. They may use a local map (with a scale) and string to help them make that estimate. This information will be used during the first lesson. Students will also refer back to this log in later lessons.

Personal Transportation Log Analysis
Hand out the Personal Transportation Log Analysis worksheet. Using this to guide them, have students calculate their number of miles traveled per mode and the percentages of each.

Meanwhile, make a large class chart of all modes of travel mentioned above (Sample Class Chart). Have students work in small groups to pool their numbers before recording them on the class chart. After the chart is complete, have each group calculate class totals per mode of travel and the percentages of each mode. Finally have each student group construct a bar graph indicating the relative use of the different modes. Have student groups share results. The students should be able to see identical results.

Teacher-Led Discussion
Go over the review questions once more, but this time, ask students to focus on the class chart they just created. You may also want to ask:

  • Are there other modes used but not mentioned?
    Think of other times of the year.
  • Do you think the class percentages represent the percentages of an average American?
    Why or why not?

While discussing the results of the class's transportation logs, introduce the concept of transportation systems (technology systems). Introduce background information that will help them complete the Technology Systems Worksheet.

ACTIVITY 2 - TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

Activity Overview
Students will come to understand how each mode of transportation they use relies on a broad array of pathways, fuels, materials, and safety measures. By comparing various modes of transportation, they will realize that each mode has desirable and undesirable side effects. By examining these side effects, they will be able to identify transportation modes that can get them where they want to go with fewer undesirable side effects.

Activity
Hand out the student Transportation System Information sheet. As a class discuss the meaning of goal, input, process, output, and feedback as they relate to transportation systems. Provide examples from the teacher background information, such as inputs needed for various transportation modes. Discuss energy sources, materials needed to build vehicles and pathways, and the systems we have in place to ensure human safety. Give examples of processes used to convert energy into motion. Discuss briefly what goals we may have for our transportation systems and some of the unwanted side effects that these systems produce.

Hand out the Technology Systems Worksheet. In small working groups, have students complete two worksheets, one for each of two modes of travel. The feedback section makes a good homework assignment.

Assessment/Evaluation:

Once students have completed their Personal Transportation Logs, print the following questions for use in class discussions:

For Activity 1

  • What did you notice, realize, have trouble with?
  • What modes of travel did you use?
    (Make a list of all modes.)
  • What were the modes you used most? The least?
  • Do you think your data reflect a typical weekend/week of travel?
  • How accurate were your predictions?

For Activity 2

  • What are the outputs (costs and benefits) of different travel modes? Different fuels?
  • How have different transportation modes affected our lives, community, and environment?
  • Since the car was invented, what are some ways auto manufacturers have changed cars
    to (1) reduce things we don't like about them and (2) increase things we do like about them?
  • How do you think people will transport themselves in 50, 100, and 1000 years?

Resources:

This lesson supplies teachers with the necessary background information to bring the theme of clean and green transportation into the classroom. When information specific to a local setting is required, the lesson directs the teacher on how to find that information.

Classroom Materials [PDF]

Activity 1

Activity 2

Source: "Transportation and the Environment," Northeast Sustainable Energy Association