Sustainability

Challenge 3: Mass Transit- Teacher Lesson Plans.

Print the lesson plans here

Lesson aims

To familiarise students with the environmental impact of car journeys and other forms of transport.
To familiarise students with the environmental benefits of using public transport or non-polluting forms of transport.

Lesson objectives

Students will be expected to:

Work effectively within a group
Discuss within a group
Communicate effectively with others
Understand that burning fossil fuels leads to the emission of water and carbon dioxide
Understand that public transport can reduce both pollution and congestion levels within a community.

Lesson Outcomes

By the end of this lesson:

All students will be able to appreciate that the burning of fossil fuels has a negative impact on the environment and that fossil fuels are non-renewable energy resources.
Most students will be able to appreciate that developing effective mass transit/public transportation systems will reduce the total amount of energy used by people travelling to work, school etc.
Some students will be able to appreciate that there are a range of reasons why people might prefer to use their own transport as opposed to public transport and that persuading people to use public transport is likely to be difficult.

Curriculum links

KS4 Science

Practical & enquiry skills: 2b,d
Communication skills: 3a-c
Applications & implications: 4a,b
Chemical & material behaviour: 6c
Energy, electricity and radiations: 7a,b
Environment, Earth & universe: 8b

Lesson Requirements

Time required

One hour.

Pre-Lesson preparation required

Students will need to be provided with maps of the local area or the area on which they will perform the necessary case study. This can be a fictional area if required but there are benefits in using the local area with which students should be familiar. If using maps of the local area ensure that any restrictions on photocopying or other such reproduction are adhered to. Students will need to mark these maps.

Materials and equipment required

For the students (per team)

A copy of the Student Activity Sheet
A map of the local area which students will be able to write on/mark.

Prior knowledge required

Students should be familiar with the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy resources and aware of the link between our use of non-renewable energy resources and issues such as climate change and pollution. They should be familiar with the meaning of the term sustainable as something which is able to carry on into the future with no negative impacts on the environment.

Lesson structure (including approximate timings)

Housekeeping (5 minutes):

Introduction of lesson and explanation of aims and objectives. Arrange pupils into teams of three or four.

Intro. Activity (10 minutes):

Students need to work as a team to consider the positive and negative aspects of the ways in which we tend to travel. The Student Activity Sheet will help with this. It is important that students work in their teams to do this as it is likely to provoke some debate.
If teams are having trouble getting started they can be given some points to consider, such as:

The amount of traffic on our roads increased by 2% between 2003 and 2004 – is this a positive or negative point?
Between 1999 and 2001 61% of all journeys between one and two miles in length were made by car – is this a positive or negative point?

Higher ability groups might be able to see that some of these points could be either positive or negative depending on your perspective. Car manufacturers and oil companies are likely to see an increase in road traffic as a positive occurrence whereas an environmentalist might see this as negative.
Also included on the Student Activity Sheet is an exercise in working out carbon emissions for a range of transport methods. This can also be included if time allows.
If appropriate to the group, students can carry out this activity with an element of role play as a team of sustainability consultants called in to audit transport usage in the local area.

Team Activity (30 minutes):

In the second part of the lesson teams need to be given a map of the local area. Ideally, this should be a town or some other nearby location that is prone to some traffic congestion at certain times of the day which the students will be familiar with.
Alternatively, a fictional location can be used but this will require some prior work in creating maps and contextual information.
In their teams, students will need to analyse the map and identify where traffic problems are worst and at what times of day they are particularly bad.
They will also need to offer suggestions as to why traffic tends to be more congested at these particular times. The Student Activity Sheet will guide teams through this process.
The third part of the lesson sees teams start to design a mass transit system which will get people to where they need to go in a sustainable manner. There are several aspects to the problem that students will need to consider when designing their system:
What kinds of transportation systems exist which are capable of moving large numbers of people around relatively quickly?
What type of system would be most appropriate to the area? A state of the art monorail is not likely to be suitable for a small market town, likewise cycle rickshaws may not be suitable for transporting large numbers of people in a major city park and ride type scheme.
Any transportation system will need to use energy. In order for the system to be sustainable it will need to use renewable energy. What kinds of technology exist to provide their system with energy?
How could people be persuaded to reduce the number of journeys they make by car? This could involve providing companies with incentives to let their employees work from home, it could involve promoting car sharing, it could involve promoting the development of local shops so that people do not have to travel to out of town retail parks.

Group Activity (10 minutes):

Teams can each give a one minute presentation on their ideas to the rest of the group.

Closing (5 minutes):

Summarise key points:

Transportation systems in the developed world rely, for the most part, on fossil fuels. As a result transport accounts for a large proportion of the UK’s total carbon emissions.
The ways in which we choose to tackle climate change and dwindling reserves of non-renewable resources have to be based on good science but there are other factors, such as economic and social issues, that also have to be taken into account.
End.

Extension/Homework

This lesson could be developed into a cross curricular activity with technology, with science students working to produce a design brief for their mass transit system.

A technology class could then take these design briefs and work to produce prototypes of some basic aspects of the systems such as a logo, a scale model of a train carriage or other vehicle.

Students could investigate some of the new technologies which might be used in future mass transit systems such as magnetic levitation and room temperature superconductors, hydrogen fuel cells etc.

Students could visit local areas to conduct their own surveys of local traffic, passengers, congestion etc. They could write a questionnaire for use with the public in order to inform and / or back up their ideas.

Differentiation

Adapt discussion sessions to suit ability and age group
Provide extra support during group activity for those students who require it
Higher ability groups may wish to investigate the levels of carbon emissions from other modes of transport such as aircraft etc.

Risk assessment

It is the responsibility of the supervising teacher to carry out all risk assessments with regard to this activity and to make sure that any such risk assessment complies with the requirements of the particular institution in which it is being conducted.