Make a Transportation Hub

Make a Transportation Hub is part of Crabtree’s “Make-It Models” series. This book aims to provide students with both specific instructions for designing and building different methods of transportation while also encouraging them to use their creativity to extend the learning in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math).

Be A Transportation Engineer!
You can follow the instructions in this book, but you can also try your own ideas. You can use the instructions as a starting point and design your own travel technology, just like the genius inventors of the past and the transportation engineers of today.

For example, you could develop the car project (pages 6-7) to make other kinds of wheeled vehicles or design a hi-tech car, wheelchair, or bus of the future. Try making a submarine instead of a boat (pages 8-9), use maglev technology (pages 24-25) to design and make a hoverboard, or try combining a plane (pages 12-15) and a helicopter (pages 18-21). The sky’s the limit!

The illustrations in Make a Transportation Hub are colourful simplified drawings that support the instructions of the text. The pages are well-laid-out, and the instructions for each project are numbered in reasonable length chunks of information. The projects, themselves, are complex. For example, making a helicopter involves 22 steps.

Projects include “Rubber-Band Car”, “Paddle Boat”, “Cable Car”, “Propeller Plane”, “Going Up” (an elevator), “Helicopter”, “Jetpack”, and “Maglev Train”.

The final double-page spread shows how everything can fit together in a final transportation hub display.

Fact boxes are used to highlight important or additional information. These include “What You Need”, “Tip”, “Take It Further”, and “The Science Part!”.

The Science Part!
This jetpack works using a chemical reaction. As the vinegar and baking soda combine, they react and create carbon dioxide gas. It expands and forces the container open, making it shoot upward.

There is also a handy “Tip” with the Jetpack project. Students and adults will want to know.

Tip
Launch the jetpack outside or in a place that is easy to clean because it is a bit messy!

A “Further Information” section at the back of the book includes “Where to Get Materials”, “Books” and “Websites”. It is nice to see that the “Where to Get Materials” section includes thrift stores.

It is always a good idea to check thrift stores when you can, because they often have all kinds of handy household items and craft materials at very low prices.

My main reservation about Make a Transportation Hub is the complexity of the projects. Some of your independent learners will thrive with limited support and the encouragement to create. Be prepared to offer support to others when needed. The projects will not likely turn out exactly like the illustrations, but with help, it should be a good hands-on learning experience.