Green Transportation

In this unit, students learn that the transportation sector is a large contributor to the greenhouse gasses fueling climate change. It is also a sector where there has already been huge changes in technology and infrastructure to attempt to mitigate the impacts. Students begin the unit by learning about the fundamentals of energy and electricity by building circuits and then solar powered cars. They build on this by taking apart a toy car to understand its mechanical and electrical systems. They then connect this to energy usage in the world around them, by starting with energy usage in their own classrooms. The second part of the unit connects to the environmental and community impacts of our transportation choices by engaging with a greenhouse gas phenomena demonstration in their classrooms, and then exploring a local example of community impact of refineries in the East Bay. In the solutionary project at the end of the unit, students will imagine and design a community on a newly discovered planet with no fossil fuels. They will define the expertise (careers) and infrastructure needed to build a sustainable community. They will present their design proposals to encourage people to move to their new worlds.

Module Overview: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HXpiWPDt4xZzyrUY2xTO91LlstTj0lxAm4WCrVf65IQ/edit?usp=sharing

For the lessons that include slide decks, please make sure you check the notes at the bottom of individual slides for instructional recommendations and suggestions. 

To engage students in a discussion about different transportation methods, their personal experiences and community connections, and ultimately understand the relationship between transportation and climate change, including the movement of materials and goods.  Students also reflect on the careers that might exist today and in the future in green transportation.

Lesson Plan

Slide Deck

Students build foundational knowledge on energy and electricity (to support their understanding of transportation). A circuit converts chemical energy stored in the battery in to light, just like electric streetcars use energy created in a power plant (and available in their overhead wires) to provide the kinetic energy of motion… gas powered trucks turn energy stored in fossil fuels in to kinetic energy through internal combustion engines.  This lesson starts to frame understanding of energy sources, energy converters, and energy storage (as well as  electrical conductors and insulators).

Lesson Plan

Slide Deck

Students continue to understand how energy is converted into useful work by things around their classroom (and school) by using a Kill-A-Watt (or other energy usage monitor) to measure Watts, Volts and Amps. They collect energy usage data and use the equation Power (Watts) = Force (Volts) x Current (Amps).

Lesson Plan

Slide Deck

Will be uploaded as a video

Students use the Agency by Design Thinking Routine (Parts, Purposes, Complexities) to understand the toy car as a system with interacting parts and subsystems.  This process encourages detailed observing.

Lesson Plan

Slide Deck

Cars are the most prevalent form of transportation.  In this lesson (and lesson 7) students will build their own cars powered by solar cells.

Lesson Plan

Slide Deck

Cars are the most prevalent form of transportation (estimated 591 million cars in the world).  In this lesson (and the previous one) students will build their own cars powered by solar cells.  Students will modify their design from last lesson.  They must decide what they want to change in their car design, collect baseline data with lesson 6 car, then make modifications, take new data and compare performance.

Lesson Plan

Slide Deck

SMCOE: Lesson Plan

California Academy of Sciences: Lesson Plan

California Academy of Sciences: Lesson Website

Students use the Agency by Design (Harvard Project Zero) Thinking Routine of People, Places and Interactions to frame their online research of the community of Richmond, CA.  In interacting with the resources linked, they learn about the web of relationships, dependencies, harms and benefits to this “refinery town.”  Students also explore some of the questions to ask when planning for a post-fossil fuels economy.

Lesson Plan

Slide Deck

Students talk about the finite nature of fossil fuels, and the timeline that created the ones we are currently using (made over 350 million years ago).  They imagine what might need to be invented in their lifetimes to move people, goods and materials around.  They watch a video of future visions coming out of the Intelligent Mobility Design program at RCA in London. And also learn that there are college programs that connect to careers in transportation design. 

Lesson Plan

Slide Deck

Students will use the design process to design a community, and its transportation system and infrastructure, for a brand new planet.  This planet has no fossil fuels  (it never has a carboniferous period).  During the first part of the challenge, they learn about the 4 “zones” of the planet and what materials and resources are there.  They then decide what things they each need, and also what careers and skills the people who live there need in order to do the work required.  Then they think about the ways  in which the industrial, agricultural, residential and wilderness areas interact in a system and how a transportation system functions to connect them.  They also build a model to represent their transportation system.  And will present their community to the class in lessons 14 and 15.

Lesson Plan

Slide Deck