Unit 3, Lesson 3
Intermodal Challenge: Getting Around Clean and Green
Intermodalism refers to the transporting of people, goods, or services using a variety of travel modes. Travel modes include anything from walking, skating, and rowing to riding bicycles, horses, subways, buses, cars, and airplanes.
This lesson is designed to open students’ eyes to the possibilities that exist for getting around without just driving. Students will use mapping skills and will have to consider the environmental impacts of the decisions they make during the activity. They will then plan an environmentally sound outing that requires the use of several modes of travel.
Objectives:
The students will:
- > explore the range of transportation and leisure options available in their community,
- > use information gained thus far to plan an environmentally friendly intermodal outing, and
- > create an intermodal travel guide entry for their community.
TEKS:
English, Language Arts, and Reading
Mathematics
- Grade 6: 2D, 10D, 11A-B
- Grade 7: 2G, 10B, 11B, 13B
- Grade 8: 2C, 11B, 14A-B
Social Studies
- Grade 6: 5A, 7C, 21C
- Grade 7: 9B, 23B
- Grade 8: 28B, 30B, 32A, 32B
Time:
One week
Materials:
- > Worksheets
- > Local maps with scale
- > Mass transit schedules
- > Brochures of local establishments
- > Examples of travel guides
- > Local telephone book
Directions:
- Present the intermodal challenge and explain that the activity will culminate with the creation of a travel guide that the class will assemble for use in their community.
- Hand out and go over the information sheet ("A Travel Guide for Your Community") and the "Rubric." Alternatively, have students develop their own rubric. Students need to be clear about all expectations before they begin. Review requirements as well as the rubric that will be used to assess their work.
- Decide if you want the students to work individually, in pairs, or in small groups. Provide them with the opportunity to periodically share their works in progress.
- Before they begin to plan their outings, the class should decide on the audience for this guide. Do they want it to be for middle school students, teenagers, families, the general population, or a combination?
- Each group will need to establish environmental standards for various transportation modes. They can use the "Pollution by Mode of Travel" chart to determine relative emissions for the different modes of travel. Or have them calculate this from data in the "Avoided Pollution over Single Passenger Car" table (each on the "Pollution by Mode of Travel Worksheet").
- Start off by brainstorming possible adventures to get students thinking and inspired. Then hand out the "Design a Travel Guide Entry Worksheet" to help guide and organize their work.
- Give the groups time in class to compose entries.
- Have each group present its entry to the class.
Options
- > Give awards for the most usable, fun, environmentally friendly, original, etc.
- > Take a vote and make a class trip to an appropriate destination.
Extension - Intermodal Travel Guide
The goal is to create a user-friendly intermodal fun travel guide that informs community members of environmentally appropriate transportation choices.
Guidelines are provided for planning the outings and creating the guide. Use these as suggestions, adapting them to your needs. Once the parameters are established, the students will largely be self-directed. The teacher will play an advisory role. Allowing students some independence and control will likely increase their sense of ownership and personal investment in this project. Ideally, it will be an enjoyable, creative, and challenging process resulting in a valuable product.
Although creating the travel guide can be considered a culminating project and a valuable assessment tool, it is also an opportunity for students to explore a variety of career possibilities. A finished guide would require writers, editors, publishers, graphic designers, cartographers, and marketers in charge of advertisement and distribution. Individuals could contact local transportation facilities and relevant organizations and businesses to enlist their support, organizing a community-wide collaboration. The end result will be a useable and informative document. Through this publication, the students will inform others, influence transportation behaviors, and contribute to making their community a healthier, cleaner place.
Divide the class into teams, each with its own function. You will need the following:
- > Environmental raters to decide on environmental standards to use for consistency throughout the guide. They will rate each trip by the same standard (perhaps a five-star system based on average emissions per mile).
- > Editors to check and correct the written pieces. You may want several groups for this task, one for each written section.
- > Content designers to complete the page layout, including where maps go and how the written entries are formatted.
- > Cover designers to design the cover, write the guide’s introduction, and develop a table of contents.
- > Marketers in charge of advertisement and distribution.
Have each group give a presentation to the class explaining the steps they took to complete their task and why they made the decisions they did.
How each team completes its task and interacts with the other teams will depend largely on the resources available to the class. Access to computers, scanners, or other graphic tools versus needing to cut, paste, and photocopy will influence how this activity is set up.
Celebrate completion of the guide by taking a trip to one of the fun or interesting locations listed.
Resources:
Classroom Materials 
Source: "Transportation and Air Quality," Chapter 5, Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
