Schools and Trains

[Anonymous]

Hey Ya'll

I have checked almost every computer in the library and I have laughed out loud. Every Computer I have checked I have used to get on Trains.com and they are all in my screen name. Just wanted to tell ya'll that.

By the way, I have heard of alot of stories that invole trains and schools. I am sure that every one would love to hear your personal stories about trains and schools. British, Austrailian, and British stories are very interesting. So are others across the world.

Nick

[Anonymous]

Hey Ya'll

Just to give you an idea about what I men, here are a few of mine. Once in the fifth grade (this has happend every year since the 7th grade, I am in 8th now, it hasn't happened yet) I had a Garden Railways that I had checked out in the Library that were donated by my friends father who owned a train store in New York. I had recieved every one of those issues as well when I was in the 3rd grade. They had been drenched in milk a few weeks after I recieved them, so they were trashed.

I was looking at it and the teacher stopped me. When she was looking I took it out again. This cycle went On till I was caught again and the train books (magazines too) were permanatly banned from school.

Hope this has inspired you.

Nick

[DSchmitt]

I'm [:0] Instead of banning them[V][:(!], really creative educators woud have used them as a teaching aid[:)].

[Anonymous]

Oh Really,

This is most interesting. I might suggest this to my Social Studies teacher to use when we get to trains in Chapter 5 and 6.

Nick

[DSchmitt]

Model railroading and raifanning could be useful in teaching many different subjects:

Among them: English, Economics, History, Math, Physics, Shop[:)]

[Anonymous]

I'm waiting for Capt Carales take on this due to the fact he's a member of this forum and educator as well, I believe he said he has snuck on to trains.com as well.

[DSchmitt]

Thought of a few more subjects

Geometry, Geography, Art, Crafts

[Anonymous]

Hey Ya'll

When I owned the Aster Jumbos, I did a science project on the Power of Steam. Naturally I picked this, so I chose the jumbo to be my working model. I set up a circle of track and brought in the Jumbo and three Midland Railway/LMS coaches. When the others were presenting, I sat up front with my jumbo waiting for steam. When It was halfway there, I started, showing them the jumbo and how it orked like a real steam locmoitve and some diagrams i made. Then I showed them how to blow off steam, and fortunatly, the person I wasn't that fond of was sititing next to the Jumbo. I released steam before I realized he was there, and steam blew all over him. I sent it off and afetr I was done presenting. I stopped the Jumbo, and showed them how to dump the fire. I made an A+. I would have kept the twpo jumbos and the rest, but I sold it for college (I didn;t regret this.) I am still in the 8th grade and I am building a garden railroad.

Nick

[Anonymous]

When I was a student teacher in Ben Bolt, Texas (that is, for those familiar with the poem/play, next to Alice, Texas) I taught a lesson in 10th Grade US History. One of our projects, although we ran out of time, was to build a model of the Transcontinental Railroad for the school library. We did it in N scale, I had some of those N scale 4-4-0 Jupiter and Number 119 with old timer coaches and equipment.

As a study of geography it was an excellent lesson, as the layout progressed from right to left (i.e. westward) we modled the appropiate Geography. The students enjoyed it and learned about the importance of the Union and Central pacific. We got about 50 percent done when my student teaching assignment was over. I assume they finished it, albiet I took the locomotives with me and later sold them to another collector. Since then I have been teaching 8th grade which is 1607 to 1877 so we don't do Transcontinental railroad, but I may try someing with the Civil War (1861-1865) in large scale.


As an aside, my mother tells me I learned my alphabet by making trains out of blocks. Each time I correctly identified a letter or selected the correct order, my train got longer. Since then, I asume, I was hooked.