NTW 2008 Poster Contest Suggested Topics for Classroom Discussion

1. Everyday our lives depend on transportation. What are some of the different ways we travel? How many of these has each student used (car, bus, bike, boat, airplane, train, foot, subway, street car, taxi, etc.)?
2. Signs help us understand how and where to drive, walk or travel. Discuss the meaning of signs (stop, yield, arrow, speed, destination) and why they are important.
3. Ask students to talk about people they know who work in transportation (pilot, maintenance, construction). Also, talk about how transportation affects other jobs (grocery store worker, salesman, teacher).
4. Trace the steps a letter takes from a student’s home to a relative in a distant town. Identify all the modes of transportation that might be used in that mail delivery.
5. Invite a parent or person who works in transportation to speak with the students.
6. Think about the future of transportation…what will travel look like in the year 2055?
7. Discuss the use of computers in transportation (traffic light coordination, road design, air traffic control).
8. Discuss how transportation has changed over time, and how it has affected the way society has developed.
9. Many of us think of transportation for moving people. Identify products that are carried by different modes of transportation…
10. By train (grain, coal, oil, autos, lumber, people)
11. By barges (steel, grain, sand, gravel)
12. By airplanes (perishables, flowers, mail)