Travel and Climate Change

Positives

• This resource includes all necessary teaching materials, an educator's guide on how to use the activities, resources for your own better understanding, and additional discussion questions.
• This resource provides an easy-to-understand general overview of how city planning and transportation systems are linked and their critical role in causing and mitigating climate change.
• Each activity can be used as a standalone or in sequence.

Additional Prerequisites

• Once directed to the main case studies page in the first activity, students should use the search tool to find case studies relevant to the activity.
• The first two activities require access to the internet for research.
• Before starting the lesson, students should know that gas- and diesel-powered vehicles release carbon dioxide and how that contributes to climate change.

Differentiation

• If it is not possible for all groups to access the internet, the third activity can be completed if the teacher prints out a map for each group.
• These lessons can be used in social studies classes during lessons about urban policy-making and city planning, in environmental science classes when analyzing emissions by source and end-use, and in engineering classes during lessons about civil engineering applications.
• Have students look into how their city plans to address emissions from transportation as a follow-up activity.
• Have students research the top climate solutions, according to Project Drawdown, to assess the relative impact of transportation on addressing climate change.