Activity 1: Build a Transportation History Database (Jigsaw Activity)

Introduction: In this activity, we will be working in jigsaw teams to create a database of information about modes of transportation in the past and present.  A database is what it sounds like: a base (or storage place) of data or information.  We will be using a database called Microsoft Access (or OpenOffice Base) to store and retrieve facts about different modes of transportation throughout history.

For this activity, we will be working in jigsaw teams.  We will first brainstorm about different modes of transportation we know about.  Using this brainstorm, we will need to think about what types of facts are important for analyzing and categorizing these transportation modes. 

Students will then break into small groups and each group will research one mode of transportation.  Each small group (3-4 students) will be working together to locate important information and create database entries that will be shared with the whole class in the next activity. 

Since we will be looking for the same types of information to compare and contrast different modes of transportation throughout history, we must all agree on which facts we will be recording about each type.  Each of these facts will be a field of information in the database.  To determine these fields, we should think about what questions we will be trying to answer using the database:
  • Are the most common transportation modes used for passengers (people) the same as the common modes for transporting freight or cargo (goods)?  Why?
  • What are the most popular modes of transportation today?
  • When were each of these transportation modes first invented?
  • What did we use for transportation before these popular modern modes?
  • Do you think the old way or new way of transportation is better?  Why?
  • Which modes of transportation do you think we will continue to use?  Which do you think we will stop using?  Why?

Based on these questions, we should create a table that contains the following fields:

1.       Mode of transportation
2.       Type (passenger, freight, or both)
3.       Current popularity (passenger km for passengers or ton km for freight)
4.       Year invented

Click below to download an example Microsoft Access database file similar to one that would be created in this activity:
transportation_history.accdb
File Size: 434 kb
File Type: accdb
Download File

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Activity 2: Query the Database – “Where have we been? Where are we going?”

Introduction: In this activity, we will use the data we found and entered into our Transportation History Database in order to analyze how modes of transportation have changed and evolved over time.

We can use the database to quickly analyze information that will help us answer these questions and make predictions about the future.  To do this, we will use a query to filter the information in the database and narrow it down to what we are looking for.  “Query” is another word for “question” – we will be asking the database questions about what information it contains.

As a reminder, the questions we want to answer using the database are:
  • Are the most common transportation modes used for passengers (people) the same as the common modes for transporting freight or cargo (goods)?  Why?
  • What are the most popular modes of transportation today?
  • When were each of these transportation modes first invented? 
  • What did we use for transportation before these popular modern modes?
  • Do you think the old way or new way of transportation is better?  Why?
  • Which modes of transportation do you think we will continue to use?  Which do you think we will stop using?  Why?

Activity 3: Transportation Around the World

Introduction: In this activity, we will use spreadsheet software to analyze numbers about modes of transportation and compare types of transportation around the world.  A spreadsheet is a table containing cells of data.  Each cell can contain one of a variety of types of information – text, numbers, currency, dates or times, etc.  However, spreadsheets are most useful for working with numbers.  We can use them to do long or fancy calculations and to create visual charts and graphs of the data.

For this activity, we will compare modes of transportation around the world by using a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel, Google Spreadsheets, or OpenOffice Calc.  Open a new blank spreadsheet in your spreadsheet software and start by entering the following data from the Wikipedia “Mode of Transport” entry:  

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In this table, GDP (PPP) stands for “Gross Domestic Product Per Capita” – this means the amount of money per person in the country.  This number is listed in Euros, the measure of money in Europe.  One Euro is a little bit more thanone American Dollar.  The numbers next to each mode of transportation represent "Passenger km per capita” which means the number of kilometers traveled per person using that type of transportation.

 Using this information, students will create bar or column charts from the data to compare, at a glance, the transportation use of different countries.

After creating a bar or column chart from this data, look at the bars to answer the following questions:
  • Which country uses cars the most?  How much more than other parts of the world?
  • Which country uses airplanes the most?

Next, use Google Earth to find each location in the chart and look at them.  How are they similar?  How are they different?

Finally, access a photo database (the National Geographic magazine database, Google Images, or Flickr) to locate photos of locations in the different places in the table (Europe, the United States, Japan, and other locations in the world, such as Russia or Africa.) 

Using this new information, answer these questions:
  • Why do you think European countries use much more buses and trains (railway) than the United States?
  • Why are cars much less popular and trains much more popular in Japan than in the United States?
Click below to download an example of the spreadsheet and chart that would be created in this activity:
transportation_modes_around_the_world.xlsx
File Size: 14 kb
File Type: xlsx
Download File

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