The Greatest Lakes
Who Uses the Lakes?
by Timothy McDonnell
Victor Jr. High School
Victor, New York

The Port of Toledo (Ohio), a very busy harbor.

With Adaptations from Lessons from
Life in the Great Lakes from Ohio Sea Grant.

CONNECTIONS TO THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS:
The geographically aware person knows…
Std. 1 - How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
Std. 16 - The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.

CONNECTIONS TO THE NEW YORK STATE STANDARDS FOR MATH, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY:
Std. 3.4 - Students use mathematical modeling/multiple representation to provide a means of presenting, interpreting, communicating, and connecting mathematical information and relationships.
Std. 3.5 - Students use measurement in both metric and English measure to provide a major link between the abstractions of mathematics and the real world in order to describe and compare objects and data.

OBJECTIVES: (to know, to do, and to be like)
1. The students will use scales on maps to measure distances between places.
2. They will use formulas and proportions to solve problems about relative cost, energy use, and efficiency.
3. They will construct circle graphs to compare data about Great Lakes shipping.
4. They will defend decisions made about shipping by land or water using mathematical documentation.

MATERIALS:
Activity Worksheet (in pdf format); Great Lakes Shipping booklet from Ohio Sea Grant, website for Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System, Great Lakes Transportation Map, string, rulers, protractors, drawing compasses, calculators (optional), maps of Great Lakes and the World.

PROCEDURES:
1. Show students some photographs of Great Lakes freighters. How are these tankers designed to carry iron ore, limestone, grain?
2. Pass out copies of maps of the Great Lakes. Review with students the names of the Lakes, connecting waterways, and the major cities found in the region.
3. Have students measure distances by land and by water between Duluth, Chicago, and Toledo. Then they compute the travel time by all three forms of transportation (highway, water, railroad) for all routes.
4. Practice several sample problems using the formulas and proportions (total cost, energy efficiency).
5. Propose this problem: “How much would it cost to send a shipment of iron ore from Duluth to Chicago by rail and by lake freighter? How about a shipment from Toledo to Chicago, and for Toledo to Duluth?" Students must show their work and record the data on a chart.
6.  In the Ohio Sea Grant booklet, Great Lakes Shipping, on page 28 there is a chart on the tonnage of cargo carried on the lakes in the mid-1990's. Have the students construct a circle graph (using protactors and compasses) to show the relative importance of the eight most carried products. 
7. To conclude this lesson, have the students describe the advantages and disadvantages of transporting commodies on the lakes vs. on land.

SUGGESTED STUDENT ASSESSMENT
1. Assess the worksheet to see if the problems have been solved correctly.
2. Give students related questions about shipping costs, such as comparing cost of sending packages by air mail or by freighter across the Atlantic Ocean.

ADAPTATIONS AND EXTENSIONS:
1. Some of the costs for transportation are over ten years old. Can the students find more recent information? Does that change their conclusions?
2. Younger students should be able to measure the distances on the maps, but they will probably need assistance in determine cost and energy efficiency.
3. The Great Lakes in the 19th century were important for the movement of people, not just goods. With the exception of some ferries, that is not the case anymore. Why not? 

Go back to the Greatest Lakes Home Page.