Further divide each group into teams of 2-4 students. Direct students to
work with their teams to read their articles and answer the questions on their
worksheets.
When they have finished the task to your satisfaction, reassemble the whole
class and ask a person from each group to summarize the article that he or
she read.
Make a list on the board of all the different ways that railroads affected
people's lives in these communities (more types of food available, new forms
of recreation, competition with other regions for service, labor unrest, dangerous
accidents). Draw from students' U.S. History textbooks to add to this list
of effects. For example, Bailey and Kennedy's The American Pageant
discusses how railroads, canals, and steamboats brought about the "transportation
revolution" that took place between 1800 and 1860. This "revolution" fostered
regional economic specialization (cotton in the deep South, grain and livestock
in the West, and machinery and textiles in the Northeast) and brought mass-produced
products such as shoes, cloth, and candles to the once self-sufficient household.
Students may find it interesting to compare the effects of antebellum railroads
with the effects of our current dominant mode of transportation: cars and
trucks. Like railroads, our automobile culture has created opportunities for
both recreation and danger . Refrigerated trucks and our interstate highway
system makes fresh vegetables available throughout the country all year. Areas
still compete for highway construction, but today, energies are often expended
trying to prevent construction as well as encourage it. Although trains certainly
generated great amounts of air pollution, cars and trucks have been held responsible
for serious global environmental damage.
Center
for Technology and Teacher Education,
University of Virginia,
This module
created by Alice
Carter of the University of
Virginia..