My car recently rolled past the 200,000 mile mark. Anyone knows me well knows that I love my car. It’s the only brand new car that I’ve ever purchased and I’ve had it for a very, very long time. To be honest, I’m actually surprised that I didn’t reach the 200,000 mile mark a lot sooner.
Here are a few photos from the day of the big event (via my iPhone).
Here’s a brief video clip of the odometer actually rolling from 199,999 miles to 200,000. Rest assured that I took the video and images while driving through a huge empty parking lot and not while driving down the interstate.
Educational Connections
Let’s brainstorm ways that we can connect this event with the curriculum. What are some activities in which we can engage students with this event? Please share your your ideas in the comments section.
Work out total cost of ownership – service & fuel costs, parts & labour, tax, etc for the lifetime of the car so far.
Work out similar figures for scenario of having changed to a new car every 3 years over the same lifetime. Compare!
Ditto for carbon footprint 1 car versus several newer ones if possible. This would need far more info than available via online carbon footprint calculators I have seen but would be interesting…..
What about a mileage timeline comparing where you/the car were, what was going on in your life & in the world. Could be imaginative, factual, or a combination.
.-= diane´s last blog ..Going Green =-.
Chemistry – significant figures lesson – are those zeros significant?
Global warming – what is the carbon footprint for 200,000 miles of car travel?
Link to geography planning out journeys that the car could have taken which would then lead to great work in narrative developing settings. This could come from work in google maps and collecting ideas from video and images.
You could even take this into poetry by writing an Ode to an Old friend taking To become a real leprechaun or Ode To A Little Mouse as a model
.-= Bill ´s last blog ..Books into movies =-.
If you travelled in a straight line 200,000 miles into space where would you end up? What if you started the same journey from other planets in our solar system?
.-= Tom´s last blog ..Climate Change and our Sealife Topic =-.
Have the class come up with a series of car trips, and use maps to calculate the mileage, which has to total 200,000 miles. Then have them write about the destinations and sights along the way.
Or, you can have list a series of trips with mileage, but the total mileage of the trips has to be way more than 200,000 miles. Have them come up with a group of trips from your list, and the closest to 200,000 miles wins, or the one with the most trips wins, or the one that sees the most historic sites wins.
.-= Mitch´s last blog ..New Writing Teacher Webinar =-.
Could maybe have a narrative or creative writing assignment about what the car is experiencing at this momentous occasion? (point of view learning)
Is it possible to make it go backwards like Ferris Bueller did?
🙂
The maths and geography/social study angles are great. Linking petrol prices and distances travelled with a multi-country approach, might lend itself to some different units – km vs. miles, litres vs. gallons.
I like the idea of a “Make” type session exploring how an odometer works. How a unit of measurement is calculated via mechanics or electronics.
Do jet planes have odometers? Do ships? I know you talk about hours flown for a jet – but that’s a measure of time, not of distance. Why do cars have odometers in the first place?
how does an odometer work, anyway? Could study the science of the mechanical working.
Using the average price of gas today, how much did it cost to travel 200,000 miles? What if we go back? How many miles were traveled each year? How much did gas cost in each year? Now how much did it cost to travel?
We could take the data that results from Lisa’s activity, put it in spreadsheets, develop formulas, create graphs/charts/tables, and more.
Geography lesson where students plot a 200,000 mile trip
Math – calculate the average number of miles put on the car per year