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People Movers Lesson Plan
Overview
This activity asks students to think about rapid transit systems and to design one for the kids in their own community. It starts off with a discussion of the New York City subway system: why it was built, how it was built, how it changed the city.
Then, the activity is divided into several steps: 1) studying their community, 2) examining different kinds of systems and different factors involved in designing a system appropriate for the kids in their community, and 3) creating a rapid transit map for their community (along with a possible time and fare schedule, and/or drawings of potential vehicles and stations).

Grades: 3 and 4

Prep
 Open a discussion about transportation generally and mass--or rapid--transit specifically. Why do people need transport? Why do they need transport within the city? What is the difference between long-distance and metropolitan transport systems? What are the different kinds of mass transit systems?
Next, you can move on to specific cases by opening a discussion about the New York City rapid transit system. What the city was like in 1900 when the subway system was first built? population density? traffic patterns? physical environment? Then discuss the system and its features: local and express lines, being underground, nickel fares, etc. Finally, go into why the system was built in the way it was and how it met the needs of the city.

At this point, you probably want to go into a discussion of your own community's rapid transit system. Many of the questions that you discussed for New York City are applicable here as well.

 Procedures
Although this activity could be done as an individual exercise, it is probably best to divide the class into design teams.
As noted above, this activity is ideal for a group exercise. Take a look at the list of considerations for a Rapid Transit System for Kids listed in Step 2 of the Activity Web page. Have the students break up into design teams. You might want them to divide up the different considerations among them: traffic patterns, population density, cost, physical environment, and environmental issues. Each can study the community with an eye for one of these things. Then, they can hash these things over amongst themselves as they come up with their own Rapid Transit System for Kids (RTSK).As the students begin to design their system, you might want to supply them with the items they will need: different colored pens, large sheets of paper, maps of the community (both street and mass transit), photocopies of the maps, etc...
 

Assessment
History is full of ironies. Take the automobile. When it was first introduced in the early 1900s, people thought it would make our environment cleaner and transportation easier. No more horse manure to step in, no more jam-packed streetcars. A hundred years later, we're choking on the smog produced by automobiles. People thought automobiles would set us free: to live anywhere we want, to go anyplace we want. Today, we sit in traffic jams on our way to suburbs that spread to the horizon. Many, ironically, say the answer is mass transit! In this activity, students have designed their own rapid transit system, and done their part in the search for a better way to travel.

Standards
Indiana Standards
Standard #2 - Understand technology as a global system to improve, manage, and control the natural and human-made environments
    Transportation Systems:
2. Identify ways that transportation systems extend the ability of people to move themselves and their cargo.

Standards for Technological Literacy
Standard 18: Students will develop an understanding of and be able to select and use transportation technologies.

NETS for Teachers
III. Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum- Teachers implement curriculum plans that include methods and strategies for applying technology to maximize student learning.