FlightAware
Data, Graphs, and Maps
Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Geography
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 →
Provided by FlightAware
What it is
- This interactive map shows all airborne aircraft around the world.
- Students can browse this data by airport, operator, or aircraft type.
Teaching tips
Positives
- This interactive map shows the scale of global aviation.
Prerequisites
- Students can zoom in and click on individual airports to see arrivals and departures.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Math students could analyze this data. Example questions you can use with your students include:
- What percentage of global flights are in a Boeing 737?
- What percentage of global flights are JetBlue and United?
- Students can explore another interactive map called Airport Tracker, which shows carbon emissions from the 1,300 largest airports around the world.
- Students can explore the true cost of aviation by reading this information page from the Stay Grounded Network.
- Students can explore the negative effects of aviation noise pollution in this scientific article.
From the scientist review
Air travel accounts for roughly 2% of all human-caused carbon emissions. But because planes are relatively small (when compared to the Earth), flying very high up, and land and take-off in centralized locations, it is often difficult to understand the scope of human air travel on a daily basis. This website lets students visualize the over 100,000 flights that occur daily. This resource is recommended for teaching.
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Hosted on flightaware.com
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