Sydney’s new light rail project: Stage 3 Built Environments

Our Stage 3 students are exploring the built environment in their current geography unit. Some of these students did work on the planning that went into Sydney’s current light rail projects when they were in Stage 2, so I will need to establish some baseline data as to their current field knowledge on the topic during the library sessions this term.

Here are some of our useful Youtube clips:


Sydney’s Light Rail future with audio commentary – Transport for New South Wales


Sydney Light Rail flythrough – May 2015 [Sydney CBD]


Western Sydney Light Rail concept flythrough [Parramatta CBD]

The students are probably also aware of the recent building projects (Thornton Estate) and our local railway station modifications at Penrith:


Future of Sydney – Penrith

More transport video clips

Stage 2 students continue their investigation into the history of transport.


Sydney Trains Vlogs special: Red Set F1 test run


Japanese high speed bullet train


Futuristic straddling bus allows cars running underneath


Future transportation technology / China straddling bus HD

In the final days before Sydney’s Monorail ceased on 30th June 2013, Powerhouse Museum staff filmed the ride from the driver’s cab. The Powerhouse has acquired this cab and a carriage for its collection:

Driving Sydney’s Monorail


J.A.Y. Walker Deceased (1950). [Re-released for Walk to Work Day, 2012.]

Built environments and interior design

This term, Stage 2 students are investigating aspects of Built environments in their science lessons. In the library, we shall extending this work by exploring the interior designs of: railway carriages, aeroplanes, ferries and cars. Also, how do people move within the interior of a built environment? ie. stairs, escalators, lifts/elevators.


German ICE train ICE 122 interior – Frankfurt HBF – Amsterdam Centraal


Airline: the story of Pan Am – YouTube trailer version


How to design an aircraft cabin


Simara ACE – ACE link – ferry exterior styling and interior design


Making of BMW i3: interior design [electric car]


20 attractive wooden staircase design


Spiral staircase design | Beautiful collection of staircase designs as modern interior


Sydney wooden escalator at Wynyard (Walkabouter’s guide) #84 [railway station]

And if you’ve ever wondered where the Wynyard Station wooden escalators originally came from…


Luna Park big slide [Coney Island, Milson’s Point]


Elevators – How do they do it?


Otis traction scenic red elevators @ Westin Bonaventure Los Angeles CA


Elevator machine room tour: 1965 Otis gearless traction elevator relay logic unit


Beautiful 100 year old Van Emon elevator @ Golden Gate Hotel San Francisco CA


Tiny vintage Curtis traction elevator @ 100 W 23rd st New York City New York

Wheels, wheels, wheels

Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students are investigating transport. This week we are looking at the wheel, which researchers now believe may be an invention from about 5000 years ago. Some texts state the wheel was an invention of prehistoric peoples, but the evidence has not supported that assumption.


History of the wheel – claymation


Hidden histories: The wheel


Horrible histories – Pioneers of transportation

The man, the boy and the donkey revisited

Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students have been investigating the Aesop fable, The man, the boy and the donkey. (Previously, we used the following Youtube links.)


The farmer, his son and his donkey – Aesop’s fables – animated/cartoon tales for kids


The man the boy and the donkey || short story for kids

From there, the students have begun looking at factual information about donkeys, especially as to how they were once used prolifically as a working animal, for transportation, carrying heavy loads. In many places of the world, donkeys have been replaced by technology: shopping trolleys, tractors, cars, trains, etc.


Braying donkey


Pets 101- Mini donkeys


Sustainable transport in Ethiopia – The Donkey Sanctuary

Researching Museum Railway Station

City Circle Loop
City Circle Loop signage, Museum Station, Sydney, NSW.

3 Museum Station

A Flickr slideshow about Museum Station, Sydney, is HERE. Stage 2 students are researching underground railway systems as part of their science and technology unit, Buildings and Bridges.

And on through the underground stations (and Circular Quay) of Sydney’s City Circle Loop:


City Circle hi def hi speed

Four routes to Australia

In their HSIE unit, British colonisation of Australia, Stage 2 students are investigating four different travel routes to Australia from Britain:

ROUTE TAKEN BY COOK (via Tahiti)
Plymouth (August 1768), rounded Cape Horn, Tahiti (observe transit of Venus), Pacific Islands of Huahine, Borabora and Raiatea (all claimed for Britain), unsuccessfully attempted to land at Rurutu, then New Zealand, then Botany Bay, then north along Australian east coast, then Batavia in Dutch East Indies, rounded Cape of Good Hope, then arriving at Deal in Britain (July 1771, almost three years later).


The first voyage of James Cook

Route to Australia - Cook

ROUTE TAKEN BY FIRST FLEET (via Cape Town)
Portsmouth (May 1787), Rio de Janiero, Cape Town, through Great Southern Ocean to Botany Bay (January 1788), then Sydney Cove, Port Jackson.


First Fleet – Behind the news

Route to Australia - Phillip and First Fleet

BRITAIN TO AUSTRALIA via SUEZ CANAL (1900-20s)
Britain, Port Said (in Egypt), Port Aden (in Yemen), Colombo (Ceylon, now Sri Lanka), Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney.


Suez Canal time lapse mp.4

Route to Australia - via Suez Canal

THE KANGAROO ROUTE
In 1935, the route from London to Brisbane had taken 12.5 days, which included a rail trip between Paris and Brindisi. QANTAS first flew the route in 1947, from Sydney to London, with stopovers in Darwin, Singapore (overnight), Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo (overnight) and Tripoli. Return fare was £585 = 130 weeks x average wage.

In 1960, fastest trip was 34 h 30 min with eight stops. In 1989, QANTAS set a world distance record for commercial jets when a Boeing 747-400 flew non-stop, London to Sydney, in just over 20 hours. From 2012, all QANTAS services began making Sydney-London stopovers in Dubai.


The longest hop – Qantas’ Kangaroo Route

Route to Australia - Qantas Kangaroo

London bus does push-ups!

Here’s a pre-Olympics treat from Youtube that will be of interest to our Stage 2 students, especially, since it builds on recent science & technology work on levers and pulleys. The kinetic sculpture was created by Czech artist, David Cerny.


London double-decker bus does push-ups for Olympics.


London bus doing push-ups reaches its stop in Islington.


ITN News report by Sam Datta-Paulin.