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Train Across Canada

Train Across Australia

Students will explore the history of rail transport in Australia, Canada, or other nations and create a triorama depicting train travel.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

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  • Recycled File Folders
  • Tape

Steps

  • Step 1

    The first railway in Australia was built in 1831. Have students explore the history and significance of this form of travel, which facilitated the movement of materials and enhanced economic growth. How did goods and people travel before trains?  What were some of the innovations that contributed to the implementation of rail travel? What resources were transported? How did accessibility and social interaction improve for Australians?

  • Step 2

    Have students construct a triorama depicting rail travel in Australia, Canada, or another country. They can look at images of the country to inspire them as they illustrate the train and some background scenery. To create the triorama  students will fold a square piece of heavy paper or a recycled file folder bringing opposite corners together to form a diagonal line. Then have them cut along one of the folds from the corner to the center. To form the triorama they will pull one flap back over the other. Have them note which area will be hidden from view when this is done. They should lay the drawing surface flat for ease of decorating the background of their triorama. When they are done they will take that one end of the flap and pull it behind the other flap and secure it with tape. 

  • Step 3

    When their triorama is complete, have students present it to the class and talk about what it might be like to travel across a country on a train.

Standards

SS: Time, Continuity, and Change: Analyze the causes and consequences of past events and developments, and place these in the context of the institutions, values and beliefs of the period in which they took place. 

SS: Science, Technology, and Society: Identify how technologies such as communication and transportation have evolved and how people have employed advances in technology to modify daily lives including health and economics. Explore historical examples and imagine future technologies. 

Adaptations

Have students learn about some of the animals that are native to Australia, such as the koala, kangaroo, echidna, and platypus. What are there habitats? What do they eat? What is their conservation status?

Indigenous Australians arrived in the country between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago. Have students explore the origins and culture of the Torres Strait Islanders and the Aboriginal People, who together make up about 3% of Australia's population as of 2021.