TransportationHistoric Barriers to US Transportation

William E. AmburnOKAGE TC

Geographic Barriers to Transportation and Successful US Growth

Throughout history people have had to overcome problems with transportation before real progress could be made with exploration, jobs, trade, communication, and adaptation to the environment. The purpose of this lesson is to investigate the impact that transportation barriers caused people and gave rise to human invention.

Grade 8 US History

High School US History

Oklahoma History

Transportation drove the US to success as a nation.Transportation drove the US to success as a nation.

We will be exploring historic transportation issues by looking at geographic barriers to transportation.

The geographic question: What geographic barriers did people in the US overcome to develop a transportation system for successful development of the United States?

Legends of America

National Geography Standards

• Standard 3 How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environment 

Essential Element: The World in Spatial Terms

• Standard 14 How human actions modify the physical environment

Essential Element: Environment and Society

• Standard 15 How physical systems affect human systems

Essential Element: Environment and Society

Oklahoma Academic Standards for the Social Studies

• Grade 8 US History

• Content Standard 4: The student will examine the political, economic, social, and geographic transformation of the United States during the early to mid-1800s.

• Objective 6: Examine the concept of Manifest Destiny as a motivation and justification for westward expansion…

Oklahoma Academic Standards for the Social Studies

• Oklahoma History • Content Standard 2: The student will evaluate the major

political and economic events that transformed the land and its people prior to statehood.

• Objective 5: Cite specific visual and textual evidence to assess the impact of the cattle and coal mining industries on the location of railroads lines, transportation routes, and the development of communities.

Oklahoma Academic Standards for the Social Studies

• High School United States History: • Content Standard 2: The student will analyze the

expanding role of the United States in international affairs as America was transformed into a world power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 1890 – 1920.

• Objective 1: Cite specific visual and textual evidence to evaluate the impact of American imperialism on international relations and explain its impact on developing nations.

Geographic Themes

• Place

• Human Environment Interaction

•Movement

Objectives

• Students will explore and learn about geographic barriers to US transportation and progress such as physical geography, climate, human settlement, and vegetation.

• Students will learn about types of transportation for the historic period they are studying.

• Students will speculate options of transportation development for the historic period.

Materials

Desk maps or an atlasLandform and waterClimateVegetationSettlement including boundaries

Map (colored) pencils

Pencils

Notebook paper

Computers with access to the Internet

This lesson can be done by using maps from websites.

Time Frame

• This lesson will take two days of 45 minutes or

• 1 block of time of

1 ½ hours

• There are several ways to adapt this lesson to fit your class time requirements.

Procedures – Day 1

The following lesson can be adapted to any specific era in US or Oklahoma history and can be done as an individual or group project. Pick a specific historic period, such as colonial settlement, westward expansion, or the early 1900’s.

Student independent investigation - 12 minutes

•Give students maps or an atlas, such as physical, population, climate, and vegetation, boundaries, of the US, Western Hemisphere, and/or Oklahoma or use an atlas or the Internet. Do not give them maps with transportation routes.

•Divide students into groups of 3. Students will have all of the maps but different groups will have responsibilities, such as one group with landforms, another with bodies of water, etc.

•Have students identify and list barriers to transportation such as rivers, mountains, or forests based on each group’s individual assignment. Give them approximately 5 minutes to do this. The students will need one person to be a recorder.

Day 1

Teacher Guided - 10 minutes

•Students will give their group answers as all of the students will look at each of the maps. Have one student record the answers on a chalkboard or other device so that all students in the class can see the answers or use a graphic organizer for all students to write down answers.

•Be sure to include specific names of vegetation, distance as a travel barrier, populated areas, boundaries, climate, as well as physical barriers. They need to say Mississippi River and not just rivers, or Rocky Mountains and not mountains.

•Identify forms of transportation with students, e.g., by horse, wagon, or boat, that would be used at that time in history.

Day 1

Student Group work - 5 minutes

•Have student groups brainstorm additional barriers. Tell the students that each group is a team in competition with the other groups and the team with the most answers (that the other teams do not have) wins. I suggest a prize for the team with the most acceptable or appropriate barriers (jolly ranchers).

•Setting a time limit is important. Choose an appropriate amount of time based on the needs of your class. I suggest no more than 5 minutes and 3 minutes with some middle school classes.

Teacher Guided - 10 minutes •Have each group mark off answers they have that are the same as other groups so that the winning team is the team with the most answers other groups do not have. •Have a recorder write the answers on the board in categories.•Keep track of the points each team gets from answers and award the winning team the prize.

Day 1

Debrief - 5 minutes

•Ask students what they learned about transportation issues. Discuss student ideas or thoughts.

•Ask students which barrier would be the most difficult to overcome and why. Have them keep the answer in context to the historic period.

•Be sure to compliment them on their work and answers.

Day 2

Students independently 5 minutes max

•Begin Day 2 with a graphic organizer handout having students list the vegetation, climates, physical geography, and human barriers they learned about on Day 1.

Teacher Guided 5 minutes

•Hand out maps of the US, northern hemisphere, or Oklahoma with cities, as well as the special purpose maps from Day 1.•Help students identify the location of the cities on the map or maps that they will be using for the lesson.

Day 2

Group work 8 minutes

•Tell students to use the city map and special purpose maps to determine travel barriers between designated travel locations, such as from the Atlantic coast to California, Baltimore to New Orleans, or Fort Smith to Ft. Supply in Oklahoma. Choose cities that have relevance for your time in history.

•Have students list all the barriers on a graphic organizer.

•Have students decide the best route, method of travel, and any changes in the environment or in types of transportation that would need to be made to make transportation possible. Be sure that they make decisions based on the historic time they are studying.

•Make this a contest using the same format as Day 1. The team with the most correct answers that other teams do not have will win.

Day 2

Teacher Guided

•Lead a class discussion to brainstorm types of jobs for the time period and resources necessary for transportation to develop. The students will need to write answers on a sheet of paper to be used later.

•Use Socratic questioning to help students evaluate and analyze what they have learned, such as:

What would be the greatest barrier for transportation?Where would you want to live during this time in history and why?What would you not have at that time in history that you have today?How would travel be different?

Assessment

Writing

•Have students write a ½ page journal entry about barriers to transportation for the historic period they are studying. Students are traveling from city to city and are to write what they see, such as landforms, water, climate, vegetation, animals, or people. Students also need to identify the transportation they are using and what it would be like to travel in that manner.

•Tip: Let students work in groups and use the answers they have written on paper for help. This will help them continue to learn.

Assessment

Art Option

Have students do a drawing or mural of transportation and transportation barriers.

Draw a pencil-sketched cartoon

Assessment

Reading/Writing Option

•Have students read from a journal (primary account) of historical travel, then write a one-paragraphy summary of the reading:

•“Voyage of Discovery”https://archive.org/stream/journalofvoyagef00inparr#page/n0/mode/2up

•Chisholm Trail http://www.onthechisholmtrail.com/trail-info/tales-from-the-trail/

•Steamboat travel such as the career of Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) http://www.twainquotes.com/Steamboats/SteamboatCareer.html

•Train travel by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1879 http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/emigranttrain.htm

•Building the Panama Canal http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/panama-hardeveld/

•Navigating the Red and Arkansas Rivers in Oklahoma history http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v008/v008p065.html

Extensions, Enrichment, and Simplification

Simplification:

•Do the assignment strictly as teacher led and go through one map at a time.

•Discuss the writing assignment and guide students as they write.

•Read the travel journal to the students as they read it.

Enrichment

Have students write their own travel journal entries as if they are in a specific time in history such as:  

Travel by train from Baltimore to St. LouisTravel by ship through the Panama CanalTravel by horse from St. Louis to Denver

Students answer questions such as:

What geography did they see?What was the transportation like?How long did it take them to travel?What climates and time zones did they pass through?