As I sit on the 5 hour flight from Bangkok to Tokyo, I'm thinking about creating a geography lesson around modes of transportation based on this trip. Over the course of the last ten days, I took a cab to the airport, a plane from Boston to Chicago to Tokyo to Singapore to Bangkok, spent most of the week on a bus, traveled throughout Thailand on long boats, took an overnight train with a sleeping car from Bangkok in the southern region to the northern mountains of Chiangmai, rode an elephant, used a tuk tuk to get from the night market back to my hotel (picture to follow), rode on a vintage railroad car through the western countryside near the Myanmar border, ended up back on a plane from Bangkok to Tokyo to San Francisco to Boston, and unless I find a ride, will cab it back home from Logan. That's a lot of transportation and I would assume at least half of those vehicles would be new to young students.
Any thoughts on what you might do with students around transportation and/or geography for this trip?
Another bad picture, but I took this sitting on a long boat through the Ping river in Bangkok.
My picture of the tuk tuk I took didn't come out well so here's a random web image of the vehicle. All I can say is that our driver went very fast and I may have feared for my life for a moment or so. There's a reason the woman in the photograph is holding on to the bar in the car!
Hi Ann Marie!
ReplyDeleteIt’s been very interesting to follow your trip through these posts! Thailand is not a country I remember learning about in school, so this is all new to me. Now that I think of it, the whole continent of Asia is something I remember learning very little of. Most of my social studies classes revolved around America and Europe, so it was easy to have a very close-minded view of the world. Reading about the different modes of transportation you used, I realized I had never even heard of half of them. (I searched “tuk tuk” – it looks really cool!)
I have always been interested in geography, but “geography” in school was basically just “memorize the names countries, capitals, oceans, and seas.” I would have loved to learn more of the real life issues surrounding geography – like transportation. I think it would be very interesting to learn about the different modes of transportation around the world and how they are influenced by the land. After spending a good amount of time becoming familiar with the biggest geographic influences on transportation, it may be a fun activity to give students geographic descriptions of “new lands.” They would then have to work in groups to decide on the main modes of transportation of their land (based on topography, resources, etc.) and explain their reasoning.
Once you cover how geography affects transportation, you could then get into how transportation affects different aspects of life and culture. Examining cause and effect relationships like these would have been much more interesting than memorizing isolated names and facts.
Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your trip!
-Jen Gilligan
I like your geography idea, Jen! We'll talk about this in a few weeks, but it's often hard for students now to understand the relationship between geography and transportation because technology has allowed us to transcend many former physical geography challenges (i.e., we can now fly planes over oceans and mountains whereas prior to air travel, certain regions were inaccessible or difficult to reach).
DeleteThe "tuk tuk" ride was one of the craziest experiences of the trip. I was only on one for a few miles through the city, but it was the fastest vehicle I have been on in awhile and I briefly feared for my life!
Hi Professor!
ReplyDeleteIt looks as though you are having a fascinating time in Thailand! From your posts, I can tell that the places you have visited, indeed, are each unique and thus require different modes of transportation. As Jen suggests, studying geography through a transportation focus could be a great way to expand students' perspectives and understandings beyond America and Europe.
In addition to exploring modes of transportation, students could consider even more components of life in a new place. For instance, students could break into expert groups that each research Thai cuisine, traditions, clothing, and transportation. Then, after gathering and sharing this information with their peers, students could create a brochure for Thailand. This kind of activity could require students to make a map, indicating points of interest and modes of transportation. By giving our students the most realistic experiences with new places, we can help breathe life into social sciences topics that are often experienced as dry.
Thank you for keeping us updated on your adventures throughout Thailand! I'm looking forward to reading, hearing, and discussing more about your trip in addition considering how we can use personal experiences such as these to inform best practices as teachers.
Best,
Allyson LaConte
Allyson, thanks for your thoughtful response. The brochure activity you suggested is a great one. The elementary teachers that I was with chose to focus on food, clothing, and transportation with their students. Check out this first grade teacher's post about food: http://kidblog.org/MissHartsClass-5/cd711ff4-56c6-44b2-bf4f-e222d6e8df62/food-in-thailand/.
DeleteHi Professor,
ReplyDeleteI think having a lesson on modes of transportation would work greatly with your trip to Thailand. I think the ability to show the students the pictures of yourself using different modes of transportation and relating it to the modes of transportation they use in their own lives based on the geography of the area we are in and you are in on your trip would make a great lesson. You could begin by having a discussion about the different types of transportation the students use and then build upon that by showing the modes of transportation you used while in Thailand and show pictures to make it meaningful and concrete. Students can also share their own experiences using unique forms of transportation and as a teacher you could scaffold them to explain why they used this type of transportation based on the geography of the area they were in. I think this trip gives a great opportunity to creatively teach a lesson on modes of transportation in a fun way! I also think Allyson’s idea about incorporating other parts of life in Thailand into the lesson would continue to benefit student learning. I know I am excited to hear more about the types of transportation you used and other aspects of the culture you were a part of while in Thailand!
Best,
Morgan Festa
Great idea, Morgan. Adding a map to the pictures would be a good way to connect the relationship between physical geography and transportation. Students would see water and road ways on the map to better understand why it might be better to travel by boat in certain places.
DeleteI think this is a really exciting and interesting idea to incorporate into a classroom. Many times, I personally find that social studies can be kind of bland. It is probably one of the easiest subjects to add spice to a lesson, but yet so often it is easier to just read an article instead of acting upon the moment to make a lesson truly poignant and exciting. I think using modes of transportation could be really cool and exciting, especially for students to see how you traveled and all of your experiences in Thailand. I feel like since you have such a first hand experience you could so easily pass that on to other students and get them really learning and excited to learn about modes of transportation. I can see this being an introductory lesson to a larger project of students creating a trip around the world with different perspectives based on their mode of transportation or something else really exciting! Hope your trip has been phenomenal!
ReplyDeleteCandice Lavien
Thanks for your post, Candice. I like the idea of expanding to project to other regions as well. We'll talk about essential/central questions this week, and I could see a question such as "How does geography influence modes of transportation?" as a great question to anchor a unit or yearly social studies program.
DeleteHi Professor!
ReplyDeleteI am so excited to read that you are having such a wonderful trip! There are great ways that you can incorporate your experiences with transportation in Thailand into lessons with students. One thing that you could do is show your students pictures of all the different ways you traveled through Thailand, and have a discussion about how they differ from their traditional experiences such as taking the T. Some students are very well traveled, or were born in other countries, that might have unique transportation experiences to share as well. Another way that you could incorporate your transportation experiences into the classroom is to investigate the environmental impact of these different modes of transportation. This might be more of a science lesson than a social studies lesson, but I think that knowing about the environmental footprint we create is part of being an informed citizen. I am looking forward to class on Thursday and hearing more about your trip!
Morgan Grunat
Great interdisciplinary connections, Morgan. Your post made me think that the direction of the lesson activities would also be dependent upon your student population. Depending upon where and the age of students you taught, some students might not even be aware of transportation options in their own community. You could connect local transportation and geography (i.e. students in a city might travel mostly by bus or T whereas students in the suburbs might only use cars) with transportation in other countries.
DeleteHi Professor! I definitely think a lesson on different transportation modes throughout the world would be a great lesson! All over the country there are different transportation and I think younger elementary students would be intrigued by different modes- I am currently thinking of students reacting to trains/ buses in Indian and how common it is for those buses to be crammed with people. It is such a contrast to American transportation where people get annoyed when others are too close to them on T or buses. I feel as though the majority of students could relate to choosing a transportation, some students take public transportation or their parents drive the, each mode could be different dependent on geographical locations- this would be a great way to be able to tie culture to transportation.
ReplyDeleteThanks- Caroline Kupfer
Thanks for your comment, Caroline. It's certainly true that young students might be surprised at the number of people on buses in some places. I remember how crowded the buses were when I visited a few cities in China and it was at that point where I realized just how many people lived there.
DeleteProfessor,
ReplyDeleteI love this idea of incorporating the different kinds of transportation into a lesson! In my first pre-prac placement, I was in a Kindergarten classroom. We spent a lot of time talking about modes of transportation for Social Studies. One book the teacher read to the students was about the different ways students from all over the world get to school. It showed the typical modes of transportation from different part of the countries. I think that this is such an interesting way to connect the students with the everyday lives of the people in other places--we all have to get places somehow! It would be a fun writing assignment for younger children to have them learn about the different modes of transportation through a read-aloud or pictures from the different places (maybe even videos?) and pick their favorite mode or the mode that interests them the most. Then, they can write a sentence about why they chose the mode and draw a picture to go along with it. They could present these to the class and have a discussion about each mode. For example, the student could choose the long boats in your pictures and you could have a discussion about the fact that they take these boats because of all the rivers in the country to incorporate the geography. You could also ask them if it would make sense to have this kind of transportation here and why or why not? This could be a good way to add an element of geography in a simple, accessible way for younger students.
Thanks,
Katie
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