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Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Resources

Recent News, Activities and Resources

Future City 2024 Transportation Award Winner

City Name: Philadelphia, PA
School Name: Lionville Middle School

Previous Future City Winners

 

 

 

K-12 Transportation-Related STEM Activities

 

Activities for All Ages

 All Ages - Transportation Search
 Find and answer questions about transportation features with this neighborhood scavenger   hunt.

 

Elementary-High School - Traffic Design with Nature and RC Cars
Understand how design of a road affects the ability of vehicles to maneuver (horizontal and vertical features, obstacles, lane width, etc.). This is also an exercise in design and presentation skills for older students.
 

Preschool and Elementary Activities

Preschool and Elementary – Transportation Line Up
Measure the lengths of toy vehicle queues in English and metric units.

Preschool and Elementary – Traffic Waves with Marbles
Understand and experience waves as they exist in traffic through marble modeling.
 

Elementary Activities

 

Elementary - Traffic Sign Obstacle Course
Follow the directions on signs and other traffic control devices to
get through the obstacle course and end up at school.

Elementary – Snow Plowing
Students use homemade “snow” on a typical city street section to learn that snowplow operators must do their work in a specific way so that all users can travel after a storm.

Elementary – Streets Have Personality Game
Students take on a persona and act out how they would travel on different street examples. After each turn acting, the class has the chance to discuss implications.

Elementary - Traffic Counts and Signal Timing
Learn how to count traffic at an intersection and how that relates with signal timing and the operation of an intersection.

Elementary - Intersection Safety
Learn about the different types of traffic control devices. Understand how they help people to safely enter and exit intersections.

Elementary – Friction and Ramps
Determine the angle and material covering on a ramp that results in a vehicle’s moving the fastest.
 

Elementary/Middle School Activities

Elementary/Middle – Pedestrian Signal Timing
Understand how the pedestrian “Walk” and “Flashing Don’t Walk” intervals should accommodate pedestrians of all ages with different characteristics, through role playing.
 

Middle School Activities

Middle - Paying Tolls
Find out how the way payments are collected on a tolled roadway affects congestion and air pollution.

Middle - Traveling Around Town
Develop a plan to improve the multimodal transportation network in a fictional town.

Middle - Can I Stop In Time?
Determine and measure for yourself the distance it takes to get a car to come to a complete stop based on various conditions.

Middle - Traffic Engineering Equipment
See and be part of an interactive display of some of the tools of the trade for transportation and traffic engineering.

Middle - Sign the Way
Learn about the types of signs transportation engineers use to convey information to drivers and how drivers see signs at night.

Middle - Points of Conflict
Determine the number of conflict points and the average potential collision angles for different intersection designs.

Middle - Analyzing Traffic Counts of an Intersection
Learn how to analyze traffic counts at an intersection.

Middle – Hallway Congestion
Observe, measure, and quantify the interaction between pedestrian density and travel speed in a hallway.
 

High School Activities

High - Circles, Arcs, and Tangents: the Geometry of Our Roadways
Did you know that all roadways consist of circles, arcs, and tangents?

High - Roundabouts vs. All-Way Stop-Controlled Intersections
Let students "be the vehicle" and learn how to navigate through various intersection types to compare and contrast the vehicle flow capacity of each.

High - Transportation and Climate Change Action Hour
Students will conduct online research to learn more about a topic related to transportation and climate change and present their findings with a call to action based on their findings.

High - Transportation Trends and Tech Research
Conduct online research to learn more about a topic of interest related to transportation trends and technologies.
 

High – Considering the Safety Benefits of Autonomous Vehicles
Conduct online research to learn more about the safety benefits at each level of autonomous driving.

In addition to ITE’s new activities, these sites all have transportation-related activities:

 

    K-12 Outreach Presentations/Templates

    CASITE Transportation Safety Village
    Capital Area Section, ITE Texas District

    How to Put on Effective K-12 Outreach Programs
    Jennifer Lillo

    Educational Outreach: Everyone Can Do It!
    Sarah Hernandez and Karla Corro Diaz

    Transportation Engineering    
    Grant Schultz

    Careers in Transportation and Engineering 
    Monica Suter

    Careers in Transportation Planning        
    Phil Winters

    Can Bike Manitoba
    Clever and informative video to advocate the correct use of bike helmets.

     

    Information about Transportation Careers

    The following YouTube videos were prepared by Baltimore City (MD) Public Schools for the events in which ITE was involved, all based on careers in transportation.

    These sites have information about transportation engineering and planning careers:

    Resources on Introducing Kids to Engineering

    These sites have general information about introducing kids to engineering:

    Additional K-12 STEM Outreach Resources

    These sites have many K-12 activities but they are not necessarily transportation-related:

    From this site you can order a set of interactive materials designed to be used in Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Colleges and Universities to showcase careers in transport (from the UK):

    Contact Us

    • Are you a teacher, youth leader, or parent looking for transportation professionals to talk with your kids about STEM careers or assistance with STEM activities related to transportation?
    • Are you an ITE member interested in getting more involved in the ITE STEM Committee's efforts
    • Do you have K-12 STEM Outreach resources or experiences to share with the ITE STEM Committee?

    Email us at STEM@ite.org and someone from our Committee will reach out and respond.