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
- Transportation Youth Academy Description:
This document provides a brief program overview, description of TYA activities and projects, student outcomes, and future program plans.
- Transportation Youth Academy Supplemental Resources:
This document provides numerous, additional instructional resources and videos that can be used to supplement Transportation Youth Academy activities and projects
Overview of Transportation
Activities
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.
Resources:
Exploring Transportation Careers
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.
Resources:
- Document: Instructor Activity Guide – Your Interests and Careers that Suit Your Interests
- Document: Student Activity Guide – Your Interests and Careers that Suit Your Interests
- Document: Explore Your Next Move – from Career Cafe
- Document: Personality Counts – from Career Cafe
- Website: My Next Move – Online Career Profiler
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.
Resources:
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.
Resources:
- Document: Instructor Activity Guide: Transportation and You
- Document: Student Activity Guide – Transportation and You
- Video Link: https://vimeo.com/82057937
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.
Resources:
- Document: Instructor Project Guide – Design Los Angeles Monorail System Routes
- Document: Student Project Guide – Design Los Angeles Monorail System Routes
- Document: Transportaton Outlook to 2040 – Student PDF
- Document: Transportation Outlook to 2040 – Instructor Powerpoint
- Video Link: https://youtu.be/JydTAoQugcI
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:
- Alleviate current traffic/transportation congestion, bottle-necks/traffic jams, safety issues, and increase overall mobility.
- Increase quality of life in the region by increasing transportation to places people frequently go for entertainment, health, food, education, etc.
- Increase transportation services for business, commerce, and people commuting to work.
- 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.
Resources:
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- Document: Instructor Project Guide – Design Los Angeles Monorail System Routes Using GIS
- Document: Student Project Guide – Design Los Angeles Monorail System Routes Using GIS
- Document: Instructor Guide-Patterns of Growing Population
- Document: Student Activity Guide-Patterns of Growing Population
- Document: Student Activity Guide-Transportation Planning Using LA GeoHub
- Document: Instructor Answer Sheet-Transportation Planning Using LA GeoHub
- Document: Student Worksheet-Transportation Planning Using LA GeoHub
- Document: GIS Maps and Layers in LA GeoHub and ArcGIS
- Document: Student Activity Guide-Layering Maps Using LA GeoHub and Arc GIS
- Document: Student Worksheet-Monorail Route Planning Worksheet
- Website: https://www.arcgis.com/home ArcGIS by ESRI
- Website: http://geohub.lacity.org/Los Angeles GeoHub
- Video Link: https://youtu.be/JydTAoQugcI SMT Rail Greenest Smart Mass Transit on the planet
- Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHDCRjAxpI0 What is GIS
- Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dwZZPj707I A Map for Every Story
- Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxST7CGWhv0 ArcGIS for Smart Transportation
- Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOrJEkTxwb0 City of Los Angeles GeoHub
- Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br5aJa6MkBc What is a Smart City
- Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rokWdaGc3u4 Day in the Life: GIS Analyst
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.
Resources:
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.
Resources: