Buckle up for a fun ride as we uncover the history of planes, trains, and automobiles. We will be discussing who were the Wright Brothers? Who created the first car? We will discover how trains came to be. We will go the distance creating, planes, trains and automobiles through out the course.
When students study history it is important to study from the beginning and learn why and how things have come to develop and work. We can learn a lot about our future by studying our past. This course will be a thematic unit as well, we will not only be taking off into history, we will also be doing reading, writing, science, engineering, mathematics, and making projects through the course. 

Students will learn through reading, writing, and projects that will take them through the history of transportation. To better understand why transportation is so important we will be going all the way back to the invention of the Wheel and why did it take so long for it to be invented? We will be answering hard-hitting questions that students will be excited to share with their newly equipped knowledge. 

Week 1: The history of transportation: The Wooden Wheel-Activity - Students will begin to think about a new invention with transportation that they would like to create. 

The focus for students in this age group is on the ways pioneering pilots such as the Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, and the space shuttle astronauts have changed history and society. Students will practice their reading comprehension, note-taking, and writing skills in this week's lesson. 

Week 2: History of Flight
The Wright Brothers
Learn about the history of flight for the past one hundred years
Focus on three periods: the invention of airplanes (by the Wright brothers), the introduction of women pilots (Amelia Earhart), and the space race
Activity- Write and publish their own "100 Years of Flight" news article

Week 3: History of Trains
In this weeks lesson students learn to read and trace transcontinental routes on a nineteenth-century railroad map of the United States.
By the end of this lesson students are expected to:
find their state on the core map (if that state was in the Union by 1878).
identify their home city or a nearby city on the core map.
identify the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Mississippi River, and the Rocky Mountains on the core map.
identify a transcontinental railroad route on the core map.
understand how railroads helped travelers in the 1800s. 
Activity 3-Students will 

Week 4: Transcontinental Railroad Personalities

During the 1850s, most American politicians were in favor of the construction of a transcontinental railroad, but they disagreed about where it should be built. In this lesson, students will research the contemporary arguments made in favor of the construction of a northern, central, and southern railroad, and acting as US senators, present their arguments in a mock Senate debate.

By the end of this lesson students are expected to:
Identify the major transcontinental railroad routes planned in the 1850s and subsequently constructed.
Identify and weigh the relative importance of the major geographic, economic, and political factors that influenced transcontinental railroad construction. time.
Activity: 
Students will compare and contrast experiences of Oregon Trail travelers in the 1840s and 1850s with the experiences of travelers on a transcontinental railroad in the 1870s or 1880s. 


Week 5 History of the automobile. 
People have been thinking about different ways to travel for thousands of years. As time has gone on, they have devised increasingly more effective and efficient methods of travel. The automobile made a dramatic change in the way people travel. There is no simple answer to the question of who invented the automobile and when. It has been a work in progress, developing over the past several hundred years. To better understand the history of the automobile, it could be helpful to look at a time line and see how all the pieces fit together. We will be focusing on the timeline, and when and where different types of cars were invented. 


Activity: Rubber Band Car This week is where we get into the creative portion of the class. Students will be creating a rubber band car. 


Week 6  automobiles
students will learn that the invention of the automobile helped create suburban communities.
Students will be gathering information about the history of the automobile and journal information they gather through the lesson. Students will be brainstorming with keywords such as Henry Ford, assembly line, and Model T. 

Activity-We will continue with the rubber band car. 

Week 7-People in Transportation: The Wright Brothers
Wright Brothers National Memorial commemorates two ingenious brothers from Dayton, OH who, in 1900, choose the sparsely populated area known as the Outer Banks to conduct a series of experiments that three years later resulted in the world's first heavier than air, powered controlled flight. The story of these brothers embodies the American ideal of hard work overcoming all obstacles. Wilbur and Orville Wright were not just lucky bicycle mechanics, but succeeded because of study and scientific experimentation. Their story is the realization of a dream that had existed for centuries; it is not simply about building the first airplane but rather about how they scientifically solved the problem. It is a story about those who inspired and those who aided the brothers as well as the coastal area of North Carolina before, during, and after the dream came to life.
This lesson will help students understand how the Wright brothers even got to have those famous four flights, and how this changed history forever. It will use math skills to help students understand how truly amazing the Wrights' feat was.
Students will be able to:

Understand the path that led to the Wrights' first four flights on December 17, 1903
Relate the stories of the Wright brothers' interest in flying from youth, the growing interest in flight in the late 1890s, and the flight experiments that led to their first flights in 1903
Solve relevant mathematical problems related to the Wright brothers' flights

Activity-Fly a toy or paper airplane

Week 8: Explain Transportation Revolution: 
Explain how economic incentives encouraged technological change and the capital investments that led to the Transportation Revolution.
Explore advancements in transportation, identifying ways in which they transformed trade and promoted economic growth in the United States.
Create a timeline illustrating advancements in transportation technology that have occurred since the U.S. declared its independence in 1776.
Activity Poster