Event Title: Trains
Activity: Tale of Two Noons
Materials Needed: Map of the United States, map of US, Four main time zone signs, pencils, paper, primary source documents, secondary source documents, student worksheet, white board, and markers
Objective: In this lesson, students will learn about the creation of time zones. Students will examine how time and distance factored into the creation of time zones. Students will evaluate the importance of time in the creation of railroad schedules. Inaccuracies related to poor planning before time zones were established had a strong impact on not only the railroad companies but on the lives of passengers and crew as well.
Railroads had a significant impact on our concept of time but on westward expansion as well (modification version for older grades).
Grades: 3-4
Standards:
SS.3.1.8 2007
Chronological Thinking, Historical Comprehension, Analysis and Interpretation, Research: Write and illustrate descriptions of local communities and regions in Indiana past and present.
SS.3.2.6 2007
Roles of Citizens: Explain the role citizens have in making decisions and rules within the community, state and nation.
SS.3.3.8 2007
Human Systems: Construct maps and graphs that show aspects of human/environmental interaction in the local community, Indiana and communities within the region.
EL.3.2.3 2006
Show understanding by identifying answers in the text.
EL.3.7.1 2006
Comprehension:
Retell, paraphrase, and explain what a speaker has said.
Retell, paraphrase, and explain what a speaker has said.
SS.4.1.13 2007
Contemporary Indiana: 1950 - Present. Identify and describe important events and movements that changed life in Indiana from the mid- twentieth century to the present.
SS.4.1.14 2007
Contemporary Indiana: 1950 - Present. Research Indiana's modern growth emphasizing manufacturing, new technologies, transportation and global connections.
SS.4.1.15 2007
Chronological Thinking, Historical Comprehension, Analysis and Interpretation, Research: Create and interpret timelines that show relationships among people, events, and movements in the history of Indiana
SS.4.1.17 2007
Chronological Thinking, Historical Comprehension, Analysis and Interpretation, Research: Using primary and secondary sources and online source materials, construct a brief narrative about an event in Indiana history.
EL.4.5.4 2006
Write summaries that contain the main ideas of the reading selection and the most significant details.
Key Terms: Hourglass (Sand timer or Sand glass) Pacific Time Zone, Mountain Time Zone, Eastern Time Zone, Central Time Zone. Sundial, Railroad Time, Standard Time Act
Activity Description: Making the connection between the importance of following a schedule and how it led to the creation of time zones. Students will also identify different forms of telling time and how these evolved into what we commonly use to tell time.
Procedure:
What is a Clock? Activity
· Students will be separated into four groups. Students will be designated to each table that will have one of the four different types of timekeeping methods on it.
Candle with Marks on it
Hourglass
Sundial
Digital Wristwatch
· Students will be asked to examine the object on each table. On their memo pad, students will be asked to identify what their object may be. They will also be asked to write down what this object may have been used for, and how it could have been used for that activity. Other ideas may be written on their memo pad, such as; where this object came from or how old their object may be.
· Each group’s hypothesis will be hung on the wall. Each group will be asked to present their findings for the class. Each member of each group will be asked to share one thing they found about their object.
· After each group shares their findings, as a class we will examine each object more closely and find out the origin, and the time frame for each invention. Students will share their ideas and ask questions during this reflection time. Students will be asked to take guided notes during discussion time.
As a class, students will discuss what may happen if everyone in the room had their watches set to different times. Brainstorm as a class a list of consequences. Points of discussion: what effect could this have on planning a party? Would everyone get to school on time?
· Students will be shown a map of the United States with four different clocks above each time zone.
· Explain to students that the United States has four different Time Zones.
-Time Zones are the set time schedules for designated regions in the United States. There are a total of four different time zones in the US and many more over the world.
· Ask students if they know where the four different time zones are.
· Explain to students the difference between the four MAIN time zones, and what their names are. From East to West [Eastern Time Zone, Central Time Zone, Mountain Time Zone, and Pacific Time Zone] Stress to students that there are more than four time zones (keeping Hawaii and Alaska in mind)
· Note the significance of Arizona. Discuss what DST means on a map
Possible points of Discussion: Where are the different time zones located? Can you think of any reason that time zones would have been placed where they are? Who decided where they go? Where do you think these names came from?
· Retell the story of “The Day with Two Noons”
Points of importance/discussion:
Most people set their clocks at Noon, but noon happened at a different time every day. The sun is directly overhead Boston before its overhead in New York, and these places are pretty close to one another, so this gives some perspective of how the sun travels over the United States, and shows how it can be ‘noon’ at different times of the day in different places. Originally, the United States had about 300 different time zones!
Every large city set its own time based on when the sun was overhead. When the clock read noon in Chicago, it was 12:24 in Cleveland, 12:13 in Cincinnati, 12:09 in Louisville, 11:50AM in St Louis, and 11:48AM in Iowa.
The first initiative that was taken by railroad companies was the establishment of “Railroad time” which is a standard time used by railroads that stayed the same regardless of location. Not the government! This is an example of how powerful the railroad businesses were in this time period.
Why wouldn’t this work? Because the US is so large, having only one time across the country would have people in California eating breakfast at 10am, and getting to work around noon. By this time though, people in New York would be ready for dinner!
After the railroads established their times, it was officially adopted by the United States Congress in 1918 according to the Standard Time Act.
· Why 4 time zones? Each zone is 15 degrees in longitude wide. If the earth rotates 360 degrees each day, divide by 24 hours, you get 15 degrees per hour.
· In China, there is only one time zone for the entire country. This is because China’s government chooses to have only one uniform time zone. This showcases the differences each country holds (US being a democracy, and China being a Communist State).
Summary:
· At exactly noon in November of 1888, American and Canadian railroads begin using four continental time zones to end the confusion of dealing with thousands of local times. The bold move was emblematic of the power shared by the railroad companies. (not the federal government, which currently holds the responsibility for time zone changes)
· The need for continental time zones stemmed directly from the problems of moving passengers and freight over the thousands of miles of rail line that covered North America by the 1880s. Since human beings had first begun keeping track of time, they set their clocks to the local movement of the sun. Even as late as the 1880s, most towns in the U.S. had their own local time, generally based on "high noon," or the time when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. As railroads began to shrink the travel time between cities from days or months to mere hours, however, these local times became a scheduling nightmare. Railroad timetables in major cities listed dozens of different arrival and departure times for the same train, each linked to a different local time zone.
· Efficient rail transportation demanded a more uniform time-keeping system. Rather than turning to the federal governments of the United States and Canada to create a North American system of time zones, the powerful railroad companies took it upon themselves to create a new time code system. The companies agreed to divide the continent into four time zones; the dividing lines adopted were very close to the ones we still use today.
· Most Americans and Canadians quickly embraced their new time zones, since railroads were often their lifeblood and main link with the rest of the world. However, it was not until 1918 that Congress officially adopted the railroad time zones and put them under the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
· Extended learning: Explain that time is relative. There are different interpretations of time; clocks, passage of days past, the world being in motion.
Writing Prompt: What if you had the chance to throw out the old calendars and clocks and could design a completely new way to keep time? How would you do it? Would you make July and August 80 days long each so that you could have more time off from school?! Would parents and principals just hold class in the summer then? You can’t trick them that easily! ;)
Keep in mind that our time keeping system is arbitrary. Ancient civilizations chose something hundreds of thousands of years ago and we still do it the same way because that’s how we learned it. What if you could change that and do whatever you wanted? Would you still make a year the equivalent to one earth revolution around the sun? What’s important to you in a calendar or hours of the day?
1. Try to imagine a system different from our current system. How creative can you be and still have the hours and days add up? Example: only 6 months 60 days long, and school being 2 months long= 180 days?
2. Draw your new calendar and keep track of it as the days pass, however you choose to measure them.
3. See how well your creation works as time marches on, don’t be afraid to experiment with lots of different ideas!
The Times Reports on "the Day of Two Noons"
The 1883 adoption of four standard time zones did not come easily. Many Americans, particularly those who continued to mark the passage of time by the natural rhythms of the sun, resisted the efforts of railroad officials and scientists to impose standard time on the nation. William F. Allen, the first secretary of the railroad companies' General Time Convention (GTC), wrote and spoke tirelessly in his efforts to secure time standardization. To minimize opposition, the GTC’s proposed new time zones deviated very little from existing norms: most changes were kept to half an hour or less. Sunday, November 18, 1883—known as the “day of two noons” because people were required to stop what they were doing and reset their clocks anywhere from two to thirty minutes—was remarkably orderly. This New York Times article described the scene in the nation’s largest city. Local and state laws soon ratified the new standard, but as late as 1915, citizen challenges to the time standard were still being considered by the courts.
Possible Extension of other topics:
· Using the concept of time change through history, look at other events and build upon the importance of time. The Lewis and Clark expedition is an example to showcase how long trips were prior to the invention of technologies like trains.
· Have students build other types of clocks and make comparisons with them through experimentation. Creating a sundial outside using chalk and outlines of bodies each hour or using a sand clock (hourglass) to tell time.
Worksheets, Map, Primary and Secondary Sources:
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