June 2001: Travel Check out these interdisciplinary activity ideas, TV programs, and online resources for your classroom. Return in July for ideas relating to independence days around the world. Teaching Ideas Travel Agent Apprentice Allow students to explore America and compute expenses associated with travel. Give each student a highway map of the United States. (Students may work individually, with partners, or in cooperative groups.) In this project the students may do some or all of the following: Draw the names of 4-5 American cities, landmarks, places of interest, etc. out of a hat. Locate the places on the map, and plot the best route to see all these places, starting from their hometown. List the directions of travel (north, south, east, west, etc.) from hometown. Use the map key to compute the number of miles for a round trip. For a further math extension to this lesson, students will choose one of the locations and: Compute cost of gas for the entire trip (assume 20 miles per gallon) at the average cost of a gallon of gas. Research the cost of an airplane ticket. Compare costs. (Make sure to multiply airline tickets by the amount of people traveling.) Compute length of trip in days, providing at least a two-day stay over. (Compute how many hours driving per day or assume an amount of miles per day.) Research and compute motel costs for overnights. Compare the cost to overnight camping. Compute costs of meals per day in restaurants. Compare this cost with grocery costs for meals. (Make sure to multiply costs of meals by the amount of people traveling.) Create a chart displaying/comparing the costs of travel, meals, and lodging. From the charts, compute various trips: most economical, most expensive, most fun (how they want to make the trip) and report out to the class. This lesson may be extended by examining different types of currency for the trips (credit cards, cash, checks, and travelers checks). List the advantages and disadvantages of each method of currency. A large map can be reproduced or drawn for the bulletin board to mark locations as they are reported to the class. Related Web Sites: American Experience Wayback: Summer Vacation http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kids/ Going Places http://www.pbs.org/wnet/goingplaces3/ PBS Teacher Source: Vacation Across America http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/thismonth/jul00/index.shtm Mapquest http://www.mapquest.com/ The Interstates and the Transformation of American Life http://www.pbs.org/weta/dividedhighways/ Texas Department of Transportation: Tex and Dot http://www.dot.state.tx.us/kidsonly/TexAndDotPg/kidspage.html Postcards from America http://www.postcardsfrom.com/ US and Canada Travel Destinations http://www.nationalgeographic.com/destinations/ Modes of Travel This lesson examines types of transportation that people use to travel in the past, present, and future. Begin by questioning students about how they got to school that mornign. Point out that walking is one means of transportation, as is a car and a bus. Explain that transportation is the way we get from one place to another. Brainstorm various forms of modern transportation. They might include plane, bus, car, and boat travel. Students may be encouraged to include other means such as walking, sledding, submarine, hot air balloon, etc. Create a chart to compare and contrast all forms of transportation. Have students decide on the variables, such as speed, comfort, cost, etc. This chart can be used to create Venn Diagrams or graphic organizers with the descriptors of the modes of travel. It can also be used to practice classification, as students classify these modes as fast travel/slow travel, economical/expensive, wheeled/no wheels, or moving many/few people. Students may be divided into groups or pairs to draw pictures of the various forms of travel and/or write poems describing the travel or list interesting facts. Extensions of this lesson can include travel of the past. Students can use their same charts that they made to note descriptors of the travel. They can make timelines to show periods in time when the transportation was popular. Students can write stories of characters of earlier times as they experienced (for the first time) a ride in a new mode of transportation. Students can use their imagination and create modes of travel for the future. They can draw their new invention and write descriptions of it. They can create ads for marketing their new travel either on posters or by acting out a television commercial. Related Web Sites: PBS Teacher Source: Science and Technology: Transportation http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/science_tech/elementary_transportation.shtm Bicycle Museum of America http://www.bicyclemuseum.com/html/bike1.html National Bicycle History Archive of America http://members.aol.com/oldbicycle/index.html Early Adventures with the Automobile: First Person Accounts http://www.ibiscom.com/auto.htm PBS: The American Experience: Streamliners http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/streamliners/peopleevents/e_ica.html Transportation and Public Transportation http://www.transitpeople.org/lesson/trancovr.htm The Interstates and the Transformation of American Life http://www.pbs.org/weta/dividedhighways/ Texas Department of Transportation: Tex and Dot http://www.dot.state.tx.us/kidsonly/TexAndDotPg/kidspage.html PBS Online Resources: Sites to See **For a complete list of travel-related PBS sites, please visit the PBS.org Travel & Expeditions neighborhood online. Adventure Divas: Cuba http://www.pbs.org/adventuredivas/ Australia: Beyond the Fatal Shore http://www.pbs.org/wnet/australia/ Going Places http://www.pbs.org/wnet/goingplaces3/ Great Wall Across The Yangtze http://www.pbs.org/greatwall/ Hitchhiking Vietnam http://www.pbs.org/hitchhikingvietnam/ The Living Edens http://www.pbs.org/edens/ Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure/ Mississippi River of Song http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/ Voyage of the Odyssey http://www.pbs.org/odyssey/ Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey http://www.pbs.org/wayfinders/index.html/ Wild Indonesia http://www.pbs.org/wildindonesia/ Wonders of the African World http://www.pbs.org/wonders/ IdahoPTV PBS Programs Don't miss these programs airing in June! SCULPTED BY FLOODS Airs Wednesday, June 6 at 7:00 p.m. MT/PT Great opportunity to continue the learning through the summer! Learn about some of the forces that have created the land around us. Cataclysmic floods sculpt the prehistoric landscape in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Waters of Glacial Lake Missoula, which submerged valleys from Sandpoint to Deerlodge, Montana, ripped through North Idaho and Central Washington at speeds up to 70 miles an hour. ANYPLACE WILD Airs Saturdays at 3:30/2:30 p.m. MT/PT This adventure series takes viewers around the globe on exciting forays. This month features a Wilderness Survival School in California's Golden Trout Wilderness, a wild whitewater ride on Utah's Green River, and a hike into the mysterious Maya Mountains in the jungles of Belize. AFGHANISTAN: CAPTIVES OF THE WARLORDS Airs Tuesday, June 12 at 10:00 p.m. MT/PT This film features journalist Arthur Kent as he gives viewers a glimpse into the dark world of Afghanistan, a country that has been at war for over two decades and is currently under the extremist Taliban regime. GREAT STREETS Airs Thursday, June 28 at 1:00 a.m./12:00 midnight MT/PT "Edinburgh's Royal Mile with Emmylou Harris" explores this medieval street in Scotland from the palace of Holyroodhouse to Edinburgh Castle. Viewers visit the National Library where the ghosts of writers Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott are said to live alongside their original manuscripts. Emmylou Harris introduces viewers to some people who are building the new Parliament and tells the history of the popular Edinburgh arts festivals. GREAT WALL ACROSS THE YANGTZE Airs Wednesday, June 13 at 1:00 a.m./12:00 midnight MT/PT This program tells the story of the controversial building of the Three Gorges Dam on China's Yangtze River. Although the dam promises economic growth, its construction will force over two million people out of their homes, have a drastic effect on the surrounding environment and destroy ancient burial grounds and temples. In addition, the people living in the surrounding areas will be faced with a new danger: the dam's collapse. THE LIVING EDENS Airs Tuesday, June 12 at 7:00 p.m. MT/PT and repeats at 2:00/1:00 a.m. MT/PT Wednesday, June 13 "Tasmania: Land of the Devils" explores the island of Tasmania, off the southeast coast of Australia, home to the largest marsupial carnivore: the Tasmanian devil. NATURE Airs Sunday, June 10 at 8:00/7:00 p.m. MT/PT "Earth Navigators" explores the amazing phenomena of migration, as it looks at some of the wonderful journeys that many animals take twice a year when the seasons change, over land, in the air and through the sea. "Jackals of the African Crater" travels to Ngorongoro in Tanzania to look at three different species of jackals. Constantly in a struggle for survival, they must use their cunning and resourcefulness in order to stay alive. QUEEN VICTORIA'S EMPIRE Airs Mondays, June 18 and June 25 at 8:00 p.m. MT/PT This series is about the amazing 64-year reign of Queen Victoria and the great rise of the British Empire under her rule. The first hour, "Engines of Change," explores the birth of the Queen, the industrial revolution, urban migration and the political powers that turned the nation's attention abroad. Hour two, titled "Passage to India," explores how the Great Mutiny and the Cawnpore massacre of 1857 resulted in Victoria and Albert assuming direct rule over India. It also describes the first major war of Victoria's reign, the Crimean War, and tells of Prince Albert's death. "The Moral Crusade" begins in 1861, as the most powerful nation in the world mourns the loss of Prince Albert. This episode tells of the exploration of the African interior, the debate between Disraeli and Gladstone over the British government, the purchase of the Suez Canal and the early colonization of Africa. QUEEN VICTORIA'S EMPIRE concludes with "The Scramble For Africa." This episode explores how rebels killed General Charles Gordon during the holy war in Sudan, how Cecil Rhodes discovered diamonds in southern Africa and how the Boer War led to the reassessment of the Empire's purpose. The series concludes as the death of Queen Victoria marked the end of an era. SAHARA Airs Friday, June 29 at 1:00 a.m./12:00 midnight MT/PT Visit the harsh Sahara Desert to encounter some interesting creatures, including foxes that meow, cats that bark and lizards that swim through sand. Viewers will also explore the wet and cold in the desert, including the snow in the Atlas Mountains and some rare torrential storms.