BookBus Tracking Project - materials for Primary schools
This project could be integrated into topics related to, for example, literacy and reading, communications, transport, maps or space technology.
These are suggestions for activities which might feature the project at Key Stage 1 and, particularly, Key Stage 2.
Check when the next BookBus visit is scheduled. Talk about what happens when the bus visits, and why it is useful to refresh the school's library. How do the teachers and librarians choose which new books they would like to take out and give back? How is this different to using the school library or a local public library? Are there other kinds of libraries people use (e.g. toy libraries, video libraries)? Does your local library only issue books, or can you do other things there? How did people access books in the past?
Use the information in the data from one day to describe the librarian's day. Imagine what happened during the day and write it as a story. Draw or find pictures to illustrate the story.
Talk about the way that the tracking project can tell us where the bus is at any time and collect useful information about the journeys it makes - when it sets out and arrives somewhere, how fast it goes, how long it takes, which roads it goes on. Talk about the idea of manmade satellites, where they are, how they got there, and other ways satellites are used, for example in television broadcasting.
Look at the times taken by the bus on its journeys. Why do some journeys take longer than others (the length of time the bus was moving)? Are these journeys the same length? Does the bus always travel at the same speed during its journey, or does it stop and start? Why does it stop and start, slow down and speed up? Think about a journey made by, for example, a person walking, a person on a bicycle, a person on a horse, a person on a motorbike, a person in a car. What are the differences between these forms of transport and the journeys they make? Think about the maximum speed each can travel, and also the length of time each might take for the same journey. Talk about the idea of an average speed over a journey, taking into account any stops and starts and changes in speed.
How would the same journey have been made 20 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 years ago, 1000 years ago, 2000 years ago?
What might affect the average speed recorded for the BookBus and make a journey take longer? Think about amounts of traffic at different times of day (rush hour), roadworks, weather conditions. Are some routes "faster" than others, for example, main roads versus country lanes? How do drivers plan their routes (think about using a map, planning how long to allow for the journey)? What else affects how fast cars go (think about road safety, traffic calming, safe driving)?
Use the "Live update" feature to find out where the BookBus is now. Is it moving or still? How else could you find out where the bus was at the moment (think about schedules and timetables, contacting the driver - and why this might not be a good idea)?
What ways do people use to know where they are? Think about maps and navigation and how these have changed over history. How could people let other people know where they were? Think about why this could be important. (Think about shouted messages in thick forest, messages in bottles, pigeon post, letter writing, telephone calls, radio signals). How do animals communicate their whereabouts to each other?