- Finding Our Way -

Picture this:

You are gifted a free, all expenses paid trip to go anywhere within the United States (or if you live outside the United States, within your country). Where would you go? Okay, awesome, that’s a great destination!

Now you have to plan how to get there. What modes of transportation will you be taking? Make sure you think about not only how you’re getting to your destination, but how you’ll get to the place you’re staying, how you’ll get to your destinations of interest, and how you’ll jump from location to location within your trip (it’s a free trip...why not?). Plane? Cruise ship? Walking? Biking? Car? Bus? Now think, how do these modes of transportation get to where they need to go? What tools are used for navigation? What is the backup if something goes wrong with the first form of navigation?

Let’s use some journeys involving navigation to help us learn more about navigational methods and their evolution over time. These will involve looking at some artifacts from the National Air and Space Museum.

Keep the following question in mind throughout the exploration: How do navigational needs for different environments influence changes in these tools, and how did technological advances impact navigation?

Teacher Guide