Transportation Youth Academy

The Transportation Workforce Institute (TWI) and Advanced Transportation and Manufacturing Pathway at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College (LATTC) welcomes you to the transportation youth academy (TYA) for high school students, grades 9-12. In TYA, participants explore the transportation industry and participate in real-world transportation projects. Academy activities and projects are replicable and incorporate engaging videos, content, and “hands-on” activities. The overall intent of the program is to increase youths’ awareness and understanding of the transportation industry and career opportunities while gaining fundamental technical and teamwork skills including working on exciting and worthwhile industry projects.

TYA is a program designed to be implemented during a five-week summer session. However, the curriculum is modularized into discrete activities and projects that can organized to fit any configuration and schedule. This page provides descriptions of each module along with links to the resources used. Each module includes a button linking to the implementation of it with youth. The Youth Academy Video, below, showcases how the modules come together and provides insight into the reactions of youth participating in TYA at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College.

In addition, a TYA youth website with all TYA activities and projects is available for youth participants. The site is designed for self-paced exploration and learning or to be used to supplement in-class experiences. The website is located at: http://pathways.lattc.edu/futureready/.

Guides and Resources

Activity and Project Guides

Click the link below to download all the student and teacher activity and project documentation in a single .zip file. Both PDF’s and editable MS Word or PowerPoint documents are included. Links to PDF versions of the documents for each activity are included beneath the description of the activity.

Additional Resources

Activities

Overview of Transportation

Transportation Exploration: The U.S. Transportation System

This activity takes the students on a journey across the country to discover how the U.S. transportation system works, including a “behind the scenes” look at the modes of transportation, components, careers, infrastructure, and issues of the aging system that cannot keep pace with a growing US population.

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Live Example

Exploring Transportation Careers

There are numerous career opportunities in Transportation ranging from those that plan and design transportation systems and vehicles….to those that build the infrastructure and manufacture vehicles, to those that keep the system and vehicles in good working order.  Careers in transportation provide good pay and advancement opportunities, are here to stay, and are becoming more “high-tech” as transportation systems and vehicles become “smarter and smarter”.  These careers also provide an rewarding opportunity to be part of building your community’s future.

In this activity, students will engage in transportation career exploration activities utilizing several online resources including MyNextMove available through the US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.

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Live Example

Exploring Your Career Interests

People who work in careers that match their interest are typically more successful and fulfilled. In this activity students use the ONet Interest Profiler assessment to identify their interests and match them to careers best suited to their interests, in transportation and other industries. Students use their Interest Profiler results, along with documents they download from Career Café, to gain insight into their career interests and options.

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Live Example

Transportation Word Search Puzzle

In this activity, students find words that describe modes, components, and occupations that make up the U.S. Transportation System hidden in a word search puzzle. They challenge themselves to see how quickly they can find the all the words.

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Live Example

Transportation and You: How Transportation Affects Our Daily Lives

For many of us, it is obvious how the US transportation system affects our daily lives as we move from one place to another. Less obvious, is how much we rely on the system for the items we use on a daily basis. In this activity, students discover how transportation is critical to the movement of goods and the items in their household that they frequently use.

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Live Example

Projects

Design Los Angeles Monorail System Routes

In this activity students research and recommend potential routes for a new monorail system in Los Angeles with the goal of enhancing local and regional connectivity to meet transit demand based on projected population growth.  Alternatively, students can learn and use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to plan the monorail system routes using the Design Los Angeles Monorail System Routes Using GIS project below.  Moreover, you may augment this activity by combining it with the activities in the Los Angeles Monorail System Routes Using GIS project below.

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Live Example

Design Los Angeles Monorail System Routes using GIS

In this project students will learn to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to recommend potential routes for a new monorail system in Los Angeles, California to meet one or more of the following goals:

  1. Alleviate current traffic/transportation congestion, bottle-necks/traffic jams, safety issues, and increase overall mobility.
  2. Increase quality of life in the region by increasing transportation to places people frequently go for entertainment, health, food, education, etc.
  3. Increase transportation services for business, commerce, and people commuting to work.
  4. Provide better transportation access/services to low-income, elderly, and vulnerable populations.

Students also conduct a mock, real-life project where they imagine the are preparing a plan to present to a regional transportation board.

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Live Example

Marketing the Los Angeles Monorail

Students work as a team on a mock scenario as follows. Their team has been hired to develop a marketing campaign and materials for a new monorail transportation system in the Los Angeles area. The campaign and marketing materials include naming the monorail system, promoting the system through vivid language that will attract riders, developing supplemental materials for riders to see and read while waiting at monorail stations, and creating exhibits or displays that will attract people to ride the monorail system.

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Live Example

Build the Los Angeles Monorail System

In this multi-week project, students learn and apply skills in automotive technologies, electronics, welding, solar technologies, and computer numerical control manufacturing to design, build, and operate a monorail system and its components—including a rail vehicle. For more information and resources pertaining to this multi-faceted project, contact the Transportation Workforce Institute at twi@lattc.edu.

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Live Example