Students will learn:

1. applications of kinematic quantities such as displacement, distance, time interval, etc.
2. skills such as proportional reasoning, finding information from a website, and critical thinking.
3. justice consequences of unequal transportation access, safety, practicality, etc., specifically related to sex, race, disability, and social class.
4. social change is possible, as highlighted by positive examples.
5. ways to empower themselves by engaging civically to address injustice.

This project is used in an in-person, introductory college physics class of 24 students. The project is delivered as a series of five activities to be completed outside of class over a 10-week quarter, each taking roughly an hour to complete. Special equipment is not needed. The activities could be adapted to a high school class, much of which could be completed during class time. The physics connection is at a basic level, so it might be difficult to make it appropriate to a higher-level course.

Typically, one of my first lessons in an introductory mechanics class is to have students brainstorm descriptions of motion, particularly answers to the questions "where?" and "when?". Through discussion, I guide students to refine the descriptions into the (named) concepts of distance, displacement, path length (distance traveled), position, (clock) time, and time interval. I spend about 10 minutes introducing the overall plan for this transportation justice project, and then I assign Part 1 to be completed outside of class. Commute Project Part 1.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 15kB Aug23 23) Part 1 is mainly an immediate application of the kinematic concepts to a real situation. Students are given roughly a week to complete Part 1. After grading and providing comments, I discuss common errors and add context (for example, how to calculate gas mileage) during a following class session.

Next, I assign Part 2 to build on what students learned from Part 1. Commute Project Part 2.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 14kB Aug23 23) This is partly an opportunity to consider commute alternatives, but is really intended to prime students to think about why they commute the way they do, and in doing so, find issues that lead to transportation injustice in society. These include cost, safety (waiting for a bus in the dark, or lack of bike lanes), practicality (very early, infrequent, or long bus routes), unequal availability (no bike lanes or no bus routes in an area), and desirability (long or early commutes, exposure to weather, or poorly maintained infrastructure). Again, students have about a week to complete this part, and then I grade and provide comments.

Part 3 brings in local and national news stories of transportation injustice. Commute Project Part 3.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 15kB Aug23 23) This time, students participate in a discussion board to reflect on issues of race, sex, class, disability, social class, and how social structures lead to unequal availability of transportation options. Once again, I give students about a week for this part, and I participate in the discussion to provide other ideas and commentary.

In Part 4, students read positive stories of improving transportation justice locally and abroad. Commute Project Part 4.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 14kB Sep8 23) Attachment: Civic Engagement Ideas.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 106kB Aug23 23) Students use a discussion board to brainstorm civic engagement activities to address transportation injustice. I highlight the examples of writing to government officials or talking to friends or family about these issues in order to emphasize that civic engagement can be impactful without being a lot of work. I participate in the discussion thread, encouraging students to think bigger, consider unintended consequences of their ideas, or build on each other's ideas. I may give students a week or more for this - long enough to think of good ideas, but I want to leave a lot of time for part 5.

Finally, for Part 5, students execute their civic engagement plan and reflect on the engagement as well as the project as a whole. Commute Project Part 5.docx (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 15kB Aug23 23)I like to have students' reflections be private submissions, but students are often proud of the work they did, so it is rewarding to devote some class time to students voluntarily reporting on their civic engagement.

Due to the nature of the physics content, it is important to start Part 1 in the first week of the course so that it is relevant to the material. Parts 2 and 3 can follow quickly, and then students can be given a much longer time for parts 4 and 5. This is especially helpful if there is a date-specific event (such as an election) students can participate in for their civic engagement.

These activities were designed for an algebra-based class. For a calculus-based class, it may be reasonable to combine Parts 1 and 2 since the kinematics may be more familiar.

The activities are completed outside of class, with a little introduction and follow-up in class (about 10-20 minutes for each part). This was to make it as easy as possible to incorporate into the class schedule. If you were adapting this to a high-school class or a class for non-science majors, completing more of it during class time would be reasonable.

My students have been very interested in this topic, and nearly all students made serious efforts on each part. Because of this, grading has not been difficult: most students earn full points for each part. The main places where students tend to lose points is either making technical errors in the first two parts, or not completing all aspects of the later parts. A very small number of students misunderstand the purpose of the civic engagement and report on service work unrelated to climate justice. I tend not to penalize them for this, but do try to help them understand the difference. If Part 5 is due before the very end of the term, these students could be given an opportunity to try again.

Students will learn:

1. applications of kinematic quantities such as displacement, distance, time interval, etc.
   • Parts 1 and 2 give students a chance to distinguish these in a real-life context. Students are graded on whether they are correctly finding these quantities.
2. skills such as proportional reasoning, finding information from a website, and critical thinking.
   • In parts 1 and 2, students use proportional reasoning to calculate carbon emissions. Their work is graded for correctness. They calculate emissions with data they collected from various websites, such as miles/gallon for different vehicles, emissions/gallon, etc. In parts 2 and 3, students think critically about what considerations go into their own commute choices, as well as those of others. In part 4, they use critical and creative thinking to plan out a civic engagement project.
3. justice consequences of unequal transportation access, safety, practicality, etc., specifically related to sex, race, disability, and social class.
   • Part 3 focuses on this topic, and part 2 primes students to be thinking about how this connects to their own experience. Students are evaluated on whether they are meaningfully engaging with the articles provided and/or coming up with other examples.
4. social change is possible, as highlighted by positive examples.
   • Part 4 includes two examples of positive change, and students brainstorm how to either build on those or create other positive changes through civic engagement. Students are given credit for meaningfully engaging in the discussion.
5. ways to empower themselves by engaging civically to address injustice.
   • Students execute their plan to civically engage. Some examples of engagement that are popular are voting, volunteering, writing to representatives, and talking to family members. Students then reflect on the experience and the project as a whole. Students are evaluated on whether they actually completed a civic engagement activity and whether they reflected meaningfully.

Resources are linked in the documents for each part, but here they are again, along with archived versions. This work is supported in part by NSF-IUSE grant (DUE 2043535).

How much CO2 does Cycling really Save? | ECF archived 9/8/2023: How much CO2 does Cycling really Save_ _ ECF.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 513kB Sep8 23)

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle | US EPA archived 9/8/2023: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle _ US EPA.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 384kB Sep8 23)

Bus Fuel Consumption and Travel | Bureau of Transportation Statistics (bts.gov) archived 9/8/2023:

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Transportation justice is climate justice - Washington Conservation Action (waconservationaction.org) archived 9/8/2023: Transportation justice is climate justice - Washington Conservation Action.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 2MB Sep8 23)

Why biking infrastructure is a racial justice issue | Grist archived 9/20/2023: Why biking infrastructure is a racial justice issue _ Grist.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 85kB Sep20 23)

NYC may ban e-bikes in public housing following a spate of fires | Grist archived 9/20/2023: NYC may ban e-bikes.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 99kB Sep20 23)

King County begins year-round free transit for those 18 and under (fox13seattle.com) archived 9/8/2023: King County begins year-round free transit for those 18 and under.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 447kB Sep20 23)

More people prefer to travel by train instead of plane in Spain, boosted by arrival of new high-speed rail operators | Sur in English archived 9/8/2023: More people prefer to travel by train i...pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 1.3MB Sep8 23)

RENFE launches 360 km/h 'Bullet Train' in Spain – (and beyond?) - The Portugal News archived 9/20/2023: RENFE launches 360 km_h ‘Bullet Train’.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 848kB Sep20 23)

American Exceptionalism Off the Rails (jacobin.com) archived 9/8/2023: American Exceptionalism Off the Rails.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 502kB Sep8 23)