Transportation in the History of Chicago Teaching Guide


Please also refer to the individual teaching guides for each tour in this module.

Aim
Rationale
Audience
Prerequisites
Subject Matter
Materials
Goals and Objectives
Additional Information (extensive collection of web links)

 

Aim

The Transportation Module will guide third-grade Chicago Public School students through the history of Chicago in the 19th century, through a focus on topics related to transportation.

Rationale

Transportation, the movement of goods and people over a certain distance, is at the core of the development of human civilization.

By using the city of Chicago as a point of reference, students will be able to relate their own condition to history.

Audience

This module is designed for third grade students in the Chicago Public Schools. It could also be used by private school students or any other young people (or adults) interested in the early history of Chicago.

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Pre-Requisites

Reading at a 2nd grade level

Use of Internet browsers

Use of mouse

Subject Matter

The subject matter of this module will include:

  • The progression of time, and distinguishing between past, present, and future events.
  • The history of transportation (the movement of goods and people), including milestone inventions and inventors.
  • The role that transportation has played in the development and expansion of cities and civilizations.
  • The role that geography plays on the development of cities, and how geography dictates the modes of transport used by people.
  • Various modes of transport for air, water, and land, and the advantages and disadvantages of one over the other.
  • The effects of different modes of transport on the environment and pollution, and various ways to improve the environment.
  • The science of movement.

Materials

Journal

Internet-linked computer with browser (version 4.0 recommended) for each student or group of students.

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Goals and Objectives

These are the State Goals and Chicago Academic Standards and Framework Statements relevant to this module:

Language Arts:

STATE GOAL 5: USE THE LANGUAGE ARTS FOR INQUIRY AND RESEARCH TO ACQUIRE, ORGANIZE, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, AND COMMUNICATE INFORMATION.

CAS A. Conduct basic research using a variety of technological tools and research.

CFS 1. Ask how and why questions: interviews. surveys. conferences.

2. Locate information in reference materials: examine pictures and charts. use a table of contents. use indexes.

3.Use glossaries, dictionaries, encyclopedias, other reference books, and available technology to answer questions.

4.Gather and use information to gain knowledge, solve problems, and support positions.

7.Present research findings in appropriate written and oral formats.

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Mathematics:

STATE GOAL 10: COLLECT, ORGANIZE, AND ANALYZE DATA USING STATISTICAL METHODS TO PREDICT RESULTS AND INTERPRET UNCERTAINTY AND CHANGE IN PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS.

CAS A. Collect, organize, and display a set of data using pictures, tallies, tables, charts, lines, or bar graphs, noting patterns, relationships, and changes over time.

CFS 1. Read and interpret information on various kinds of graphs and draw/construct various kinds of graphs from data, objects and drawings.

2. Compare sets of data (e.g., more girls walk to school than boys in the 3rd grade; in our class the favorite color was blue, but it was red in Mrs. Frank's class) from tallies, charts, line, and bar graphs.

3. Describe and explain data, graphs, patterns, and relationships clearly and logically and support statements by linking them to the data.

CAS B. Formulate questions of interest; design surveys or experiments to answer the questions, gather data, explain how the data will answer the question, and communicate results.

CFS 1. Develop questions that are clear and answerable (e.g., daily temperature, lunch count, attendance).

2.Identify data needed to answer questions.

3.Create effective and efficient methods for collecting and recording data gathered.

4.Communicate the results of a survey or experiment clearly.

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Science:

STATE GOAL 13: HAVE A WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY IN HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTS.

CAS A. Identify and describe major technological changes and their effects on people, tools, and nature.

CFS 1.Describe ways that technology is helping to solve the problems of pollution (e.g., water treatment, recycling).

2.Describe effects that technology can have on various environments around the world (e.g., greenhouse effect, replacing CFC's).

3.Identify examples of the disruption of food webs by modem technology and the implications of such interruptions (e.g., draining wetlands, ozone depletion).

CAS B. Demonstrate understanding of conservation and the need to protect renewable and non-renewable natural resources.

CFS 1.List causes of pollution, its effects on plant and animal life, and possible ways of reducing or preventing it.

2.Investigate, develop, and demonstrate conservation practices for renewable resources (e.g., reducing, reusing, recycling, replanting trees).

CAS C. Describe historical roles of people and societies in the development of current scientific knowledge.

CFS 1.Read about and describe science-related careers and avocations.

2.Read about and describe contributions of both male and female scientists, including those with physical disabilities, from a wide variety of cultures.

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Social Science:

STATE GOAL 15: UNDERSTAND, ANALYZE, AND COMPARE ECONOMIC SYSTEMS, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON THE UNITED STATES.

CAS B. Illustrate how the availability and use of natural, human, and capital resources affect the quality of life and the natural environment

CFS 1.Explain why conserving resources benefits society.

CAS D. Identify and describe the roles and relationships of the various individuals, groups, and institutions that make up economic systems (eg., producers, consumers, workers, banks, labor unions, government agencies, small businesses, corporations).

CFS 1.Describe economic networks common in everyday life (e.g., transportation systems that move people to and from school and work, food distribution systems that supply supermarkets and restaurants).

2.Describe how demand and scarcity affect the choices consumers and producers make about what goods and services to buy and sell.

CAS E. Describe and discuss characteristics of the work world and the role of laborers who supply our basic needs.

CFS 1.Describe how communities depend on workers and how workers contribute to the equality of life.

2.Explain why specialized jobs (e.g., astronaut, neurologist, psychiatrist, attorney, air traff ic controller, systems analyst, school principal, carpenter, plumber) require extensive training before people can perform them.

STATE GOAL 16: UNDERSTAND AND ANALYZE EVENTS, TRENDS, INDIVIDUALS AND MOVEMENTS SHAPING THE HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER NATIONS.

CAS A. Analyze the historical development of communities in the Midwest and the United States (eg., settlement, statehood, wars, technological developments).

CFS 1.Explain the chronological development of Chicago and the Midwest in a national context and describe significant eras and events in that development (e.g., indigenous inhabitation, settlement, industrialization, immigration, urbanization).

2.Compare and contrast current lifestyles with those of selected eras in United States history (e.g., colonial New England, the Civil War South, the Great Depression in the major cities).

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STATE GOAL 17:

DEMONSTRATE A KNOWLEDGE OF WORLD GEOGRAPHY, AS WELL AS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE EFFECTS OF GEOGRAPHY ON SOCIETY, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON THE UNITED STATES.

CAS A. Demonstrate a basic understanding of direction, size, shape, distance, relative and absolute location, and other geographic representations.

CFS 1.Explain basic geographic concepts such as location, place, direction, distance, scale, movement, and region.
2.Describe the location of places using absolute and relative location.

CAS C.

Explain the relationship between the physical (eg., climate, landform, resources) and human characteristics (eg., settlements, population, language) of places and describe how they have changed over time.

CFS 1.Identify the factors that affect where people choose to settle (e.g., the availability of transportation and resources, climate, jobs).

2.Describe how places are connected by the movement of goods and services, ideas, and
people.

3.Describe patterns of change that occur in places, especially Chicago.

4.Describe the specific topography of Chicago and explain its effect on the growth of the communities within the city.

CAS D. Describe the relationship between human activity and the natural environment (e.g., natural disasters,
pollution, proper use of resources).

CFS 1.Identify the spatial distribution of selected resources (e.g., coal, petroleum, forests).

2.Using Chicago examples, describe how transportation systems can affect the physical environment in positive and negative ways.

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Additional Information

Chicago Growth, 1850-1990, maps by Dennis McClendon

The Chicago Architecture Imagebase An Era-By-Era Collection of Images

Images of Chicago's Downtown Loop from the late '70s to the early '90s

Chicago's 'loop' in 1893, as seen by Rand McNally's artists

Chicago Architecture and Art: Images from Books

Fire Insurance Maps of Chicago

Chicagoland Expressway Congestion Map

The Museum of Transportation

Important milestones in English and American railway development

How a Car Engine Works (great animations)

Aeronautics Learning Laboratory for Science, Technology, and Research (all about Flight)

Photo Gallery of Flight

Moving Transportation into the Information Age: A Primer on Intelligent Transportation Systems for State and Local Governments

The Museum of Science and Industry's Pioneer Zephyr web site

Results of a search using yahooligans - some great sites

Education homepage of Dept of Transportation

Some great links to modes of transportation - cycling, trains, space, water, airtravel

Museum of Bus Transportation

Federal Highway Administration site for 6th to 8th graders

US Coast Guard Vessel information and images

Transportation Facts

Railroad Maps

Around the World in the 1890s: Photographs from the World Transportation Commission, 1894-96 (The World's Transportation Commission Photograph Collection contains nearly nine hundred images by American photographer William Henry Jackson. In addition to railroads, elephants, camels, horses, sleds and sleighs, sedan chairs, rickshaws, and other types of transportation, Jackson photographed city views, street and harbor scenes, landscapes, local inhabitants, and Commission members as they travelled through North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. )

Flight (all about it)

These maps document the development and status of transportation and communication systems on the national, state, and local level. Transportation maps can depict canal and river systems, cycling routes, railway lines and systems, roads and road networks, and traffic patterns. Communication maps illustrate the location and distribution of telegraph routes, telephone systems and radio coverage.

Aeronautics Learning Laboratory for Science Technology and Research (ALLSTAR)

History of Aeronautics

Principles of Aeronautics

Article about transcontinental railways from Harper's Monthly, 1872

Central Pacific Railroad Photographic museum (transcontinental railways)

Chicago WebDocent is a collaboration of

Adler Planetarium




The Field Museum



The Newberry Library

Chicago Historical Society




Museum of Science and Industry




DuSable Museum



The Oriental Institute



Chicago Public Schools/University of ChicagoInternet Project

This page last modified by
Julia Borst Brazas on August 2, 2005