SIGHTSEEING USING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Carl Miller
Illinois Geographic Alliance Summer Geography Institute, 1998

Preview of Main Ideas
"If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a day’s visit is worth a thousand pictures." This quote by Gilbert Grosvenor, Chairman of the National Geographic Society reminds us of the importance of travel. Travel to various sites whether they are foreign or domestic increases our understanding of people and places. An appreciation of different cultures can be gained by mingling with different cultures we during our travels.

The purpose of this lesson is to involve students in an activity that that will help make their travel experiences easier. When visiting large cities travelers can sometimes be overwhelmed by the masses of people and auto traffic they encounter on the streets. One way to make getting around easier is to use the local mass transit system. By learning to read the system’s maps and diagrams tourists can avoid a large amount of the congestion and thus travel to more places within the city and make better use of their travel time.

In this lesson we will use the underground systems in both London and Washington as examples. This lesson may be extended to any city with which a teacher might have personal experiences.

Connection with the Curriculum
This activity can be used in a geography or social studies class when teaching map reading skills and/or place characteristics.

Teaching Level: Grades 7-12.

Objectives Classification Outline

Objective #1: Students will be able to read a mass transit system map and plan a route from one point to another within a city.

Essential Element: The World in Spatial Terms.

Standard #1: The geographically informed person knows and understands how to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.

Knowledge Statement: The relative advantages and disadvantages of using maps, globes, aerial, and other photographs, satellite-produced images, and models to solve geographic problems.

Skill Set #2: Acquiring Geographic Information.

Skill #2: Use maps to collect and/or compile geographic information.

Theme: Location and Movement.

Objective #2: Students will learn place characteristics of selected cities and locations as chosen by the teacher.

Essential Element: Places and Regions.

Standard #4: The physical and human characteristics of places.

Knowledge Statement#1: How different human groups alter places in distinctive ways.

Skill Set #2: Acquire Geographic Information.

Skill #3: Systematically observe the physical and human characteristics of places on the basis of fieldwork, as exemplified by being able to view pictures and video images of a place to collect geographic information.

Theme: Place

Materials
1.    Maps of a chosen city’s mass transit system (London and Washington included)
2.    Set of slides, photographs, or postcards from the chosen city.
3.    Transparencies of the mass transit system maps

Suggestions for Teaching the Lesson

Opening the Lesson
Tell students that they are going to visit a major city via photographs as a means of learning about the city and its monuments. Introduce the city that has been selected for the lesson. Tell students they will be planning a trip within the city to visit some of the sites of the city. The purpose of planning the route from site to site is to learn how to use the transit system maps.

Developing the Lesson:
1.   Place the students in pairs to work on the lesson. Students can then help each other when working with the maps.
2.    Present a pair of slides of two different attractions found in the city. Discuss each of the slides asking the students what they know about the place. Then provide additional information concerning each of the sites.
3.    After discussing the sites, distribute laminated maps of the transit system. Provide the students with the approximate location of each of the places and have them locate these places on the transit system map.

    Example for the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C.: Reagan National Airport and Union Station.

    Students should then use the map to find the route between the two points. They should tell which lines (red, orange, blue, yellow, or green) to take from one place to the other. Transfer points should also be identified.

    The route from National Airport to Union Station would consist of taking the yellow line from the airport to the Gallery Place-Chinatown station where they would transfer to the red line that would then take them to Union Station.

  1. Continue the lesson with additional pairs of attractions. After discussing the significance of each of the places, students should then use the map to plot a route between two places.

    2. Possible sites to discuss and route Arlington National Cemetery, White House, U.S. Capitol Building, National Zoo, Smithsonian Complex, Holocaust Museum, RFK Stadium, etc.

  2. Have the students pick places they would like to visit and have their classmates plan the transit system route between places.
  3. Place the students in pairs to work on the lesson. Students can then help each other when working with the maps.
  4. Present a pair of slides of two different attractions found in the city. Discuss each of the slides asking the students what they know about the place. Then provide additional information concerning each of the sites.
  5. After discussing the sites, distribute laminated maps of the transit system. Provide the students with the approximate location of each of the places and have them locate these places on the transit system map.

    6. Example for the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C.: Reagan National Airport and Union Station.

    Students should then use the map to find the route between the two points. They should tell which lines (red, orange, blue, yellow, or green) to take from one place to the other. Transfer points should also be identified.

    The route from Reagan National Airport to Union Station would consist of taking the yellow line from the airport to the Gallery Place-Chinatown station where they would transfer to the red line that would then take them to Union Station.

  6. Continue the lesson with additional pairs of attractions. After discussing the significance of each of the places, students should then use the map to plot a route from one place to the other.

    7. Possible sites to discuss and route: Arlington National Cemetery, White House, U.S. Capitol Building, National Zoo, Smithsonian Complex, Holocaust Museum, RFK Stadium, etc.

  7. Have the students pick places they would like to visit and have their classmates plan the transit system route from one place to the other.

Concluding the Lesson

Extending the Lesson
Secure transit maps from other major cities and extends the lesson by choosing well-known tourist attractions for them to visit via the local mass transit system.

Assessing Student Learning
Ask each individual student to plan a route between two places not previously used in class.

 

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