UP: Staying at Home with Your Kids? Rail Resources to the Rescue

Staying at Home with Your Kids? Rail Resources to the Rescue

Seven sources of fun and education to keep kids busy during COVID-19

Learning can be fun with these seven railroad learning resources.

Nearly overnight, COVID-19 has turned many parents into homeschoolers and full-time care providers. If you’re looking for fun, new ways to educate your kids (or simply just keep them entertained), these resources can help kids learn about — and have fun with! — the railroad.

Union Pacific Coloring Book

The Union Pacific Coloring Book shares fun facts about the railroad and provides 11 full-size pictures for kids to color, featuring locomotives, landscapes, animals and even teddy bears. Just print the PDF to get started!

https://www.up.com/aboutup/funstuff/coloring-book/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR1AhN1i86TG1kXBkZDVyKFupQOEe2UK6HwWvSuakxaPBng5EX0Ukhy5e54

Union Pacific Museum Teacher Resources

The Union Pacific Railroad Museum offers downloadable toolkits with information and images from its collection. Although originally intended for teachers, they work for parents, too! These include:

The Great Race to Promontory – Read the story of the first American transcontinental railroad, complete with historical photos.
Standard Time – Learn how railroads in the United States and Canada implemented a system of times and time zones and get related activities by grade level for K-8th grade students.

http://www.uprrmuseum.org/uprrm/tours/teacher-resources/

Durham Museum Learning at Home and Livestream Field Trips

The Durham Museum, which is located in a former railroad station, offers livestream field trips as well as no-cost digital learning programs. These interactive classes follow National and State Social Studies Standards and feature artifacts, videos and photographs.

https://durhammuseum.org/education/digital-learning/at-home/

National Railroad Museum Activity Zone

The National Railroad Museum Activity Zone has activities for all ages, like coloring and counting to science and math. Don’t’ forget to scroll down to get links to Virtual Storytime with Engineer Alyssa and see episodes of Mr. Bob’s Railroad Workbench.

https://nationalrrmuseum.org/activity-zone/

NEA Transcontinental Telegraph and Railroad Lessons Plans

The National Education Association Transcontinental Telegraph and Railroad page offers resources to teach kids in grades K-5 about the transcontinental railroad and telegraph. These include:

http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/transcontinental-telegraph-and-railroad-grades-k-5.html

Operation Lifesaver Resources for Kids

Help kids learn about railroad safety with Operation Lifesaver’s activities for kids, which are sorted by grade level:

Kindergarten-Grade 2: Trains and Tracks
Grades 3-5: Train Safety Savvy
Grades 6-8: Mainline Middle School

https://oli.org/info/kids

Operation Lifesaver Resources for Teachers (and Parents!)

Operation Lifesaver Teachers page offers teachers and parents lesson plans to help students from Pre-K through High School stay safe.

Pre-Kindergarten

Kindergarten - 5th Grade

6th Grade - 8th Grade

https://oli.org/safety-near-trains/additional-info/teachers

Learn More

Looking for more railroad fun? Check out our fun section, where you can even find out if you’re a rail fan. If you have questions about the railroad or rail safety, give us a shout.

Related Articles

Upcoming Webinar - Nearshoring: Best Practices for Shipping to and from Mexico

On Thursday, May 16 at 1:00 p.m. CT, Union Pacific is hosting a 1-hour webinar on nearshoring, a business strategy that involves companies shifting manufacturing and production operations to Mexico, closer to main markets in the U.S. If this is something you’re interested in, you can use this link to register.

How to Ship Sustainable Aviation Fuel

In the next three decades, more than 35 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will be produced in the United States. It’s part of a government program, called the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge, that is designed to help airlines decarbonize. The rise of renewable fuels, including SAF, makes it critical for producers and receivers to have a supply chain in place to meet upcoming fuel demand.

The Rise of Sustainable Aviation Fuel

In 2022, the U.S. government shared the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge. This government-wide approach works within the industry to reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and expand production to 3 billion gallons per year of domestic SAF. By 2030, the U.S. must achieve a minimum of a 50% reduction in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) compared to conventional fuel. By 2050, 35 billion gallons of annual SAF production must be reached.

What Is Nearshoring and How Does Transportation Support It?

In the 1990s, offshoring became a trend among U.S. companies. With more affordable labor available abroad (primarily in China), some entities relocated factories to lower production costs and increase profits. Offshoring relies on shipping those products back overseas for sale in the United States.

For decades, this model was working. Then came the pandemic, and the resulting supply chain disruptions (especially for overseas shipments) began to poke holes in offshoring strategies. With products stuck overseas sometimes for months on end, the drawbacks of offshoring started to outweigh the benefits.

Lessons learned from the last few years have prompted some companies to bring operations back to North America, specifically to Mexico. Establishing production facilities closer to end markets minimizes the impacts of potential supply chain disruptions while keeping costs in check. This is the genesis of the nearshoring trend.