Trucking

Transportation affects each of us in our everyday lives. Transportation is defined as ‘safe and efficient movement of persons and goods over time and space’.

Walking/Pedestrians

Or even complicated

Or Biking Monorail Busses Just fun…

This affects each of you in many ways, such as, how did you get to and from school today? How did the school supplies and food reach the school safely? How did the school supplies and food reach the school safely? Was this by car, bus, truck, boat, railcar or some other way? Was this by car, bus, truck, boat, railcar or some other way? Although we take transportation for granted it affects each of us differently. Although we take transportation for granted it affects each of us differently.

Besides these different modes of transportation, there are many other factors that effect travel…… One, that many of us take for granted are the…

Bridges

Shipping, Roads, Shipping, Roads, Bridges

Interesting Transporting

Pause for group work

Discussion Questions 1. How would a vehicle maker know what kinds of vehicles to make? 2. What color of car should they make? 3. What part does the US government play in deciding how vehicles should be designed? 4. What kind of safety factors have the car makers installed in the last 50 years? 25 years? 10 years? 5 years? 5. Is the cost of improving cars necessary? 6. Now that gasoline has become so expensive should other modes of transportation be designed and used? 7. What happens to old cars? 8. What happens to old tires? 9. Compare electric cars to gasoline cars. 10. Why is the need for cars so important in the 21st century?

11. How could people work and get along in the early 1900’s without cars? 12. Who is the largest user of gasoline in the world? Should this country change? 13. Are the materials used to make cars stronger or weaker than the first cars? Why is this important? 14. Why do some people prefer cars vs SUV’s vs trucks? 15. Are more roads needed? 16. What are roads made of? Should roads be made of different materials? (Fact: as of 2000 NE had 188,273 total lane miles of road) 17. How big should cars be? Why? If the families are becoming smaller why are cars becoming larger? 18. Is it right to have lanes of traffic just for cars carry more than 1 person? Why do they do this? 19. Why do some cities have subways, monorails, elevated railroads, better bus service?

Continue for Teacher Information

After exploring these lessons you will be able to connect our middle school math to real life transportation engineering problems.

Unit Content Lesson 1: Gathering Data: Vicki Sorensen Lesson 2: Walking Rates/Blinking Hands: Sarah Crose Lesson 3: Proportions, Rates, Ratios and Percents: Vicki Sorensen Lesson 4: The Hallway Crush: Sarah Crose Unit Content Lesson 1: Gathering Data: Vicki Sorensen Lesson 2: Walking Rates/Blinking Hands: Sarah Crose Lesson 3: Proportions, Rates, Ratios and Percents: Vicki Sorensen Lesson 4: The Hallway Crush: Sarah Crose

Lesson 1-Data Collection Design bar and line graphs Data collection Frequency charts Group work Measuring This lesson could be used for any middle school grade

Lesson 2- Walking Rates/Blinking Hands Algebraic Concepts/applying one step equations Data Collection Statistical interpretation Interpretation of simulations Mean, median, mode, range, maximums, minimums

Lesson 3- Proportions (work in progress) Uses all of the previous data Rates, Ratios, Proportions Circle graphs Percents

Lesson 4- Hallway Crush (Work in Progress) Theoretical Capacity Percent of Theoretical Data Collection Converting units of measurements

The unit could be broadened to include Science Family Consumer Science Industrial Technology Social Studies Reading/English Time frame can be shortened or expanded to meet the needs of student or class

REMEMBER Teaching should be creative and interesting. Transportation can also be creative and interesting.

A Culminating Activity Design a mode of transportation, either people or goods It has to use the current roadways/bridges Note: do trucks have a maximum length/height? Why are semi’s a rectangular cube? What about safety?

All of our materials are listed by lesson and the section. Remember with any unit to think out of the box! By Vicki Sorensen and Sarah Crose