Transportation: Waterways to Interstate Highways

Charles Luckmann, Skagit Valley College

Summary

In this assignment, students practice open-ended inquiry, guided inquiry, synthesis and expository writing as they explore personal and public modes of transportation, past and present, in the Puget Sound bioregion. This activity can be adapted to any region.

Used this activity? Share your experiences and modifications

Learning Goals

  • Students will consider the many modes of transportation that have been used to get around the bioregion since George Vancouver brought a new mode of transportation to Puget Sound in the form of a sailing vessel in 1792 (see "The European Impact on Puget Country" by Arthur R. Kruckeberg).
  • Students will consider the type(s) of resources needed for each mode of transportation.
  • Students will investigate texts written, visual, personal, and experiential related to as many different modes of transportation as possible, such as:
    • Canoe
    • Sailing vessel
    • Rowing vessel
    • Engine-powered water vessel
    • Horse
    • Animal-drawn wagon
    • Engine-powered land vessel, including rail locomotive
    • Flying vessels, engine-powered
    • Flying vessels, self-propelled
  • Students will practice open-ended inquiry and reflection by keeping a journal on the texts they investigate, as well as on the modes of transportation they experientially encounter.
  • Students will practice guided inquiry and critical thinking by writing 100-200 word summaries of several different texts they have uncovered while researching museum and sustainability websites, as well as other sources that the class may discover.
  • Students will consider the sustainability of different modes of transportation and relate it to the history of transportation in our region.
  • Students will enlighten their peers with their elegant discoveries, while practicing synthesis and inter-textuality, by writing a 5-page personal essay incorporating their journal writings and textual and experiential investigations.

Context for Use

This unit on transportation is designed for an English 101 class. The seed for this activity is the "Western Climate Initiative." Washington State, along with several other western states and Canadian provinces, is part of this initiative, which is designing a regional system to roll back greenhouse emissions. The number one source of emissions in the region is from transportation. Adhering to Emily Dickinson's maxim "to tell it slant," I decided to have students approach these issues experientially and reflectively as "creative researchers," and to publish their findings in a personal essay, or what June Johnson calls the "Surprising Informative Essay."

The activities are designed to be more than an intellectual activity. They should be seen as emotional and physical, experiential, even spiritual and sacred because getting around the bioregion can include mindfulness. Keeping a journal (reflection) and summarizing several readings (critical thinking) will be important components that lead to a personal essay (synthesis).

Description and Teaching Materials

This unit on transportation is designed for an English 101 class. Students will need to take responsibility for their own learning; they are asked to work independently and in groups.

This three to four week assignment explores personal and public modes of transportation in the Puget Sound bioregion, from 1792 to the present, beginning with the encounter between the aboriginal canoe and George Vancouver's sailing vessel "Discovery"
(see http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/transportation&CISOPTR=504&CISOBOX=1&REC=1).

The scope of this assignment deals with both practical and metaphysical aspects of living and thinking about the Puget Sound bioregion as one moves within it.

The activities are designed to be more than an intellectual activity. They should be seen as emotional and physical, experiential, even spiritual and sacred because getting around the bioregion can include mindfulness. Keeping a journal (reflection) and summarizing several readings (critical thinking) will be important components that lead to a personal essay (synthesis).

The Learning Activities

Warm up: Weeks 1 & 2.Begin with brief writing assignments on readings, websites, and experiential activities.
  • For the literary and historical readings, such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Henry David Thoreau, Stephen Dunn, Harvey Manning, David Neel, Will Sarvis, Annie Dillard, Max Beerbohm, Arthur Kruckeberg, and/or others of your choosing, have students type up responses to each reading responding to questions such as the following: What did I notice? What did I appreciate? What do I have questions about?
  • For the websites: first have students peruse the various websites listed under textual resources to create a timeline for when different modes of transportation were introduced to the Puget Sound bioregion, or whatever bioregion or watershed you're focusing on. Secondly, students should find several articles to read and write short summaries on. For example, on HistoryLink, if students search under the key word "transportation," they will find articles such as "Seattle Transportation: From Trolleys to Monorails, or "Construction begins on the Whatcom Trail in September 1857." Students can then pool and share their summaries on a Blackboard site created for the class. Other search terms that are useful are "highways," "state ferries," "interstate," and the like.
  • In their journals students should explore and record their experiential encounters with mindfulness and different modes of transportation, such walking, bicycle, motorcycle, automobile, bus, train, canoe, kayak, sailboat, ferry, outboard boat, rowboat, airplane, and the like. Students should also record in their journals experiments with alternative modes of transportation. For example, if one primarily drives a car solo to campus, they should try another mode for several days (e.g., bus, carpool, bicycle). In their journal students should analyze the different modes in regards to quantitative factors (e.g., cost, carbon emissions, calories, time, use of non-renewable resources, etc.) and qualitative factors (e.g., comfort, noise, stress, amount of work, etc.). To keep students honest I prefer that they type up these entries (see Assessment).
  • Another great thing to do is to schedule a field trip, if possible, to a nearby museum. The Washington State Historical Museum in Tacoma has an awesome permanent display on transportation in the 19th and 20th centuries. Their special exhibits, wonderful to experience, often deal with transportation of some sort. A recent exhibit, for example, focusing on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, showed how water could connect people, if one used a boat, or how water could separate people if the mode of transportation was the automobile-necessitating a bridge!
Through group and class discussions of these activities students begin to find their emotional and intellectual connections to the topic, as well as explore some of the "big ideas" related to sustainability and mindfulness.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion:
    • What are some problems, since 1792, associated with certain modes of transportation?
    • What are some benefits, since 1792, associated with certain modes of transportation?
    • What modes of transportation are most economically sustainable (i.e., have minimal environmental impact)?
    • What modes of transportation are most environmentally sustainable (i.e., meeting everyone's basic needs within the carrying capacity of the bioregion)? Note: the class should spend some time developing a definition of sustainability.
    • What modes of transportation promote social interaction and cultural enrichment?
    • Which mode(s) of transportation seem best suited to the Puget Sound bioregion, or Pacific Northwest? Explain your answer. (Or one can insert a different regional focus.)
    • Which mode(s) of transportation seem best suited for mindfulness (i.e., allowing for an appreciation of present moment)?
    • Should mindfulness be an important ingredient to the mode of transportation we choose? If so, which mode(s) seem best suited to fostering mindfulness?
    • Groups can develop their own questions to explore.
Week 3: Writing Project

After the first two week of getting their feet wet with readings, websites, short writing assignments, journals, group and class discussions, during Week Three (or Weeks 3 & 4, depending on how much time one wants to spend on it), students write a personal essay synthesizing their personal, textual, and collective research. Encourage students to "make it new," as Ezra Pound said, by following their own emotions and insights. Seeing a theme emerge from the various types of evidence collected is what makes it creative, personal, and new (see the essay "Seeing" by Annie Dillard). The personal essay can be blended with the formal, academic essay, too (see Bruce Ballenger's The Curious Researcher). June Johnson calls this type of personal essay the "Surprising Informative Essay" (see her "Investigating Local Food" assignment as part of the English Curriculum for the Bioregion). Students could follow Thoreau's example and write a personal essay on "Bicycling" or "Commuting," or argue for greater use of trains and railroads. In my classroom, they could even write about the future (e.g., Is there going to be a hydrogen highway?). The idea is for each student to find their voice-ideally each student will find something to be passionate about-as they reflect on what they have learned and what changes they would consider about personal and/or collective transportation modes in the bioregion since 1792.

Teaching Notes and Tips

I have presented this as a 3-4 week activity. But the writing and research could be expanded to fill a larger length of time, or even an entire quarter. For example, issues revolving around sustainable modes of transportation could be linked to global issues about energy and development (this would seem suitable to an advanced composition course). In English 101 I strive for three units of inquiry, so I would see the activity presented here on modes of transportation as one unit.

Assessment

Personal essays emerge from an intimate involvement with ideas and experience. They arouse curiosity and interest. They enlarge everyone's ideas about the topic, in this case modes of transportation. They put forth a reading of it (or some element of it) that has the purpose of enlightening the topic in a way that allows readers to reflect upon and reconsider their own ideas and experiences associated with it, as in this activity, sustainable transportation and mindfulness. Personal essays can still generally be argumentative, in that they present a clearly articulated line of thinking or inquiry, and provide evidence along the way that develops a clear point (thesis) and supports the essay writer's contentions (see Bruce Ballenger's The Curious Researcher).

For The Student

There is one fundamental consideration that should guide you as you conceive and write your personal essay: the significance of the topic to our (your classmates and my) understanding of the text(s), ideas, and experiences you are exploring vis-a-vis modes of transportation in the Puget Sound bioregion. You should ask yourself how your argument extends or complicates or revises our thinking and behavior. Extend our knowledge show us another way of looking at personal and/or public transportation in the Puget Sound bioregion, past, present, and/or future. The most important thing is that your writing brings clarity to your topic, not confusion.

For The Instructor

I emphasize the need to demonstrate both depth of analysis (critical reading and thinking abilities) and clarity of expression (the conventions of writing, such as a logical organization of ideas). I look for an engaged and thoughtful response to an interesting research question and thesis, as well as a supporting blend of personal, textual, and cultural evidence. You might find the following general criteria for scoring essays helpful; I borrowed it from Dr. Lynn Dunlap, English professor at Skagit Valley College. Also see Dr. June Johnson's 'Analytical Scoring Guide for Surprising Informative Essay' in the English Curriculum for the Bioregion.

Essay Criteria

Essays will be assessed in terms of focus, structure, diction, analysis, and control of prose and mechanics, and each weighted differently.

"A", (3.7-4.0) discusses concept(s) thoroughly, accurately, and in a way meaningful to a wide audience. The focus is controlled; organization flexible; development comprehensive, coherent, and carefully supported with detail, accurate and meaningful use of vocabulary, and, where appropriate, accurately cited sources. Diction and tone are appropriate to the subject, the mechanics flawless, and the presentation controlled. An "A" can be given to an essay that attempts a challenging approach or experiments with a style without fully succeeding.

"B" (2.7-3.6) discusses concept(s) fully, accurately, and in a way meaningful in the context of the author's experience. The focus is controlled; organization flexible; development extensive, coherent and supported with details, accurate use of vocabulary, and, where appropriate, accurately cited sources. Diction and tone are appropriate; mechanics and presentation, controlled. A "B" can be given to an essay with minor errors in style or mechanics.

"C" (1.7-2.6) sufficiently demonstrates an understanding of concept(s). The development is organized, coherent and sufficient. It uses supporting details, vocabulary and sources. Syntax, diction, tone, mechanics and presentation are controlled. A "C" can be given to an essay with mechanical control but limited ideas and development or to one with interesting ideas and development but inconsistent mechanics.

"D" (0.7-1.6) demonstrates some potential--an interesting idea and some mechanical control--but is not fully and coherently developed and/or sufficiently controlled. An essay with a good idea and development but a significant number of sentence and punctuation errors may be graded "D."

"E" (0-.6) essay fails to meet minimum criteria of competence, whether in comprehension, development or control.

Portfolio

I like to have students turn in their final essay as part of a portfolio, which includes their typed summaries and journal entries, as well as copies of the different drafts they wrote as they moved from global to local revision in the writing process.

References and Resources

  • "Walking Meditation" (57-8) and "Driving the Car" (72-4) from Present Moment, Wonderful Moment by Thich Nhat Hanh, Parallax Press, 1990.
  • "Walking" by Henry David Thoreau in The Art of the Personal Essay, edited by Phillip Lopate, anchor Books, 1994. This essay is widely anthologized and easy to find in other sources as well.
  • "Going Out for a Walk" by Max Beerbohm in The Art of the Personal Essay, edited by Phillip Lopate, anchor Books, 1994.
  • "Seeing" by Annie Dillard in The Art of the Personal Essay, edited by Phillip Lopate, Anchor Books, 1994. This can also be found in Dillard's book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
  • "Columbia Beach to Ala Spit" (138-42), "Skagit City to Fish Town" (211-7), and any other excerpts that look appealing and time allows for, from Walking the Beach to Bellingham by Harvey Manning, 2002 Oregon State University Press edition of the 1986 book.
  • "Deeply Embedded: Canoes as Enduring Manifestation of Spiritualism and Communalism among the Coast Salish" by Will Sarvis, Journal of the West, Fall 2003 (42.4), 74-80.
  • "The Sacred" [poem] by Stephen Dunn (http://www.xanga.com/silverettta/566940213/item.html)
  • "Introduction" from The Great Canoes: Reviving a Northwest Coast Tradition by David Neel, University of Washington Press, 1995.
  • "Chapter 11: The European Impact on Puget Country" in The Natural History of Puget Sound Country by Arthur R. Kruckeberg, UW Press, 1991: 405-22.
  • Washington State Historical Museum (http://www.wshs.org)
  • UW Special Collections transportation (http://content.lib.washington.edu)
  • Museum of History and Industry (http://www.seattlehistory.org)
  • Central Pacific Railroad Museum (http://cprr.org/)
  • HistoryLink (http://www.historylink.org)
  • Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society (http://www.pugetmaritime.org)
  • Sightline Institute Video (http://www.sightline.org/maps/animated_maps/your-way-on-the-highway)
  • What's the most energy-efficient form of transportation: Walking? Motorcycle? Automobile? Bicycling? For the answer see: http://www.sightline.org/research/graphics/climate-co2bymode/
  • "Introduction: Rethinking the Research Paper" in The Curious Researcher, 4th ed. by Bruce Ballenger Ballenger,

Pearson/Longman, 2004.