Creative Dad CompanyCreative Dad Company
ScienceEngineeringMath

Future Transportation Firm

Log in to save
Grades 9-1290-120 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Students evaluate competing future-transportation options—electric, hydrogen, hyperloop-style concepts—for a specific real route, weighing propulsion tradeoffs, infrastructure needs, and emissions honestly. It's a big-picture engineering debate grounded in real numbers.

Choose your version

Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.

Prep: 10 minActivity: 30 min1 session~$2/groupOne table for the Future Transportation Firm evidence and prototypeBeginner-friendly

Setup

Print or handwrite the four Future Transportation Firm challenge steps and place common paper supplies on one table. Prepare one small sample, dataset, scenario, or recycled-material model drawn directly from the project description; no device, paid tool, room decoration, or purchased kit is required.

Activity

  1. Read the Future Transportation Firm challenge aloud, then pick a real local route and predict which transportation option—electric, hydrogen, or something else—would work best for its distance and terrain.
  2. Use paper, index cards, recycled objects, or facilitator-provided sample data to build a comparison chart estimating energy use, infrastructure cost, and travel time for two or three options.
  3. Run one tabletop trial and discover the best option on paper has a hidden downside—like charging infrastructure gaps—and adjust the recommendation to address it.
  4. Finish by pitch the final transportation plan for the route to a mock city-planning panel, backed by the comparison data; record the evidence that supports the decision.

Done when: The group completes a defensible Future Transportation Firm solution, records at least one test result or comparison, changes one claim or design in response, and supports its final decision with that evidence.

Materials

printed route map, calculator, poster board, markers, small DC hobby motor for demo

Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.

Disclosure: Materials links below go to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Steps

  1. Pick a real local route and predict which transportation option—electric, hydrogen, or something else—would work best for its distance and terrain.
  2. Build a comparison chart estimating energy use, infrastructure cost, and travel time for two or three options.
  3. Discover the best option on paper has a hidden downside—like charging infrastructure gaps—and adjust the recommendation to address it.
  4. Pitch the final transportation plan for the route to a mock city-planning panel, backed by the comparison data.

Standards it satisfies

  • NGSS · HS-ESS3-2

    Evaluate competing design solutions for developing, managing, and utilizing energy and mineral resources based on cost-benefit ratios.