As well as stand alone lessons on transport, the teacher can build a number of lessons into a larger unit on the transport theme. This would support the work that the children can do on the Ask About Ireland units for 3rd and 4th called Transport Geography and Transport History. In geography, teachers can help the children to consider the advantages and disadvantages of certain categories of transport. Lists of statements could be generated and children might place the statements in two categories according to whether they are an advantage or disadvantage in the child’s view. These can be reviewed as the children work through different sections of the transport unit.
Examples might include:
Roadways - Advantages? Disadvantages? Roads can be built on steep slopes; Roads are expensive to build; roads encourage traffic congestion; many accidents happen in motorcars on our roads; Cars cause pollution; You do not need a timetable when travelling on roads in private vehicles.
Water Transport -Advantages Can carry heavy loads; cheaper to send goods by water. Disadvantages- There might be damage to goods or people due to storms; Journeys might be cancelled or delayed due to rough conditions; Some ports can only be reached when they are not frozen; Ships are slower that air transport.
Maps- Large and small maps should be made available in the classroom which depict transport routes. Children need to see how roads, railways and air and ferry routes are shown on a map. They can look at a local map and a local aerial photograph and find roadways of different kinds on both. By examining maps children can see that places are connected to other places in different ways. They should notice how places are connected by roads of different sizes. They should also notice that the more urban a place is the larger amount of roads that it has due to the volume of people and goods being moved.
Terms such as road networks can be introduced. They can draw or trace diagrams showing how road networks lead to and out of cities and how Dublin is connected by a network of roads to the rest of the country. Teachers can help children to understand that a road network is where several places are joined together by a number of routes. Children can consider why people might commute each day. Children should make maps of family journeys and of roads and streets which are near their homes or school.
Traffic congestion- video clips can be shown to the children of traffic in their locality at different times. They might notice at what time of day the road in an area is most busy. Children should notice some peak hours for road traffic.