Reimagining Public Transportation
iBlock Objective:

Millions of people around the United States take a train to work each day. Some of these commuters live a short distance from their destination, but many travel over an hour just to get to work! Can you imagine a workweek where a minimum of 2 hours each day is spent commuting? As the number of people commuting only continues to grow, innovators are continually seeking to make transportation more efficient by building faster trains that can carry more passengers. In this iBlock, students will develop an understanding of efficiency by building their own model train, capable of either going faster, or carrying more weight than their peers.

  • Grade Band: 3-5
  • Primary Focus: Forces and Interactions
  • Secondary Focus: Engineering
  • Additional Foci: Advanced Literacy, Transferable Skills, Social-Emotional Learning
  • Possible Suggested Technologies: littleBits, Sphero, 3D printer
  • Related Industry Sectors: Transportation


 

An iBlock matches skills to standards (like Common Core or NGSS).

Here is a sample content standard for this iBlock:

Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balance and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. (3-PS2-1)