Flying vs. Driving
Provided by: MIT Climate Action Through Education|Published on: January 28, 2025|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 6, 7, 8
Type: Activity - Classroom
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences, Mathematics
Authors: Amy Block
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- In this activity, students will compare flying and driving based on the emissions per person of a trip to determine the better mode of transportation for the climate.
- Students will use division and their knowledge of contrails to determine the best travel option for the climate.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This is a quick activity that can be built into a preexisting math or science lesson.
- The included background materials give valuable context for the activity.
Prerequisites
- Students should understand the impact of emissions on climate change and the environment.
- The broken link content to the aircraft emissions can be accessed here.
Differentiation & Implementation
- To extend this activity, teachers can use the Comparing Travel Emissions: Math Lesson to compare emissions from walking, biking, driving, bus, train, and flying.
- Students can plan a trip, selecting the most eco-friendly mode of travel for getting to their destination and planning an itinerary based on public transportation.
- After listening to and reading the background materials, students can evaluate their city's transportation infrastructure and propose changes to better facilitate public transport.
This engaging math lesson tasks students with comparing climate emissions between modes of transport. Several sources, including one from EPA, are linked and provide background for students to formulate their calculations. The only issue is a broken link to the source for aircraft carbon emissions, but the needed value is included in the worksheet. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
