Session 1, Read and notice: Along the towpath
Week 17 big question: How do routes and light help people move goods?
Start with a story (optional) Teju’s Shadow — Read it hereTeju is worried that something keeps following him wherever he goes.
Picture a long, quiet boat sliding slowly through the water. It is piled high with black coal. Long ago, boats like this helped transport goods on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Transport means move. A canal is a waterway that people build. It lets boats travel where no river goes. This one ran through Maryland and Washington, D.C. Boats used it from the 1800s until 1924.
So what made the boats go? Mules did the pulling. Clip, clop, they walked on a towpath beside the water. A long rope called a towline tied them to the boat. People steered the boats and guided the mules. The land was not flat, so the canal needed locks. A lock helps a boat move between higher water and lower water. Lock keepers worked them.
How did your cereal get to your kitchen? People have always had many ways to transport goods. Long ago, they walked and carried loads, and animals pulled wagons. Later, boats and trains moved goods, too. Today, trucks, ships, airplanes and trains carry goods. Some old ways are still useful, because each way fits a different job. A bike works well for a short trip across town. But a ship can carry big loads across an ocean.
A route is the way goods travel, and it depends on where places are. A shop by a harbor may get its goods by water. Ships can come right to it. A shop far from water needs a road or a railway instead.
People may build a new road or railway. Then a far-away shop can become easier to reach. Many people help goods reach us. They include makers, transport workers, sellers and people working at home. Their jobs connect like links in a chain, even when they never meet.
Show what you notice
- What did the mules do?
- How do people move goods today?
Answer your waypointact it outtell or dictatewrite