Technical Resources

Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Resources

 

 

Innov8 with ITE in Celebration of National STEM Day

We encourage you to hold transportation-themed STEM outreach events throughout the month of November in celebration of National STEM Day. 

National STEM Day is held annually on November 8th (aka “Innov8 Day”). This day inspires kids to explore and pursue their interests in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. It’s a great opportunity for STEM professionals to hold outreach events.

The ITE STEM Committee has compiled some STEM outreach resources for National STEM Day, including a series of pedestrian safety-themed STEM activities for kids of all ages (developed by the FHWA STEP Program) and general tips for STEM oureach.

Click on the handout picture below to open the PDF of National STEM Day outreach resources:

This is a multi-page flyer that includes a series of activities for kids of all ages as well as information about transportation careers.

STEM 101 Workshop Recap

Have you wanted to do K-12 STEM outreach in your local area, but don’t know where to start?

Are you a seasoned K-12 STEM outreach volunteer who is looking for new tips and tricks to “up your game”?

On August 25, the STEM Committee hosted an interactive, virtual workshop for those interested in educational STEM outreach with students in grades K-12. This workshop featured presentation from ITE’s STEM Committee members on how to make your outreach both valuable and fun, while avoiding some of the common pitfalls.

Attendees learned:

  • Why STEM outreach is so important to the future of our profession (hint: it helps to ensure that our industry has a strong pipeline of diverse, bright, and thoughtful future-transportation professionals!)
  • How to build outreach partnerships with local organizations and schools
  • How to provide high-value STEM content (including tips on best-practices from experienced K-12 STEM outreach volunteers – you’ll be able to select a breakouts by student age group)
  • Common challenges experienced during STEM outreach (and the solutions!)
  • Helpful resources

Workshop Content

 

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.

 

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 – 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 - 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

    2019 Eye on Engineering Webinar for Students
    Jennifer Warner

    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.

      Featured ITE STEM Committee Activities

       

      National Engineers Week and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

      On March 2, 2021, the members of Women in ITE and STEM committees hosted engaging webinar will introduce middle school and high school students to the exciting and meaningful engineering careers in the transportation field. This ITE panel of women engineers shared their career paths, talked about their most exciting projects, described how their work impacts their communities, and answered questions from the audience. Click here to access the recording of this terrific session. 

      Several members of the ITE STEM Committee created short videos sharing their perspectives on how they chose to become a transportation professional, how she impacts her community through her job, and the favorite part of her job. They also provide advice to kids considering a career in transportation.

      Access the YouTube playlist or click on individual videos below:

      2020 Innov8 Event: National STEM Day

      The ITE STEM Committee is providing the following resources to assist ITE Sections and local chapters that wish to host STEM events as part of the Innov8 day in November 2020.

      The suggested activities have been selected to provide maximum flexibility in the event that activities must
      be hosted in a virtual environment due to COVID-19. Resources are differentiated by student level, and
      described in the following sections.

      Learn more about these Innov8 Event resources as well as the Distracted Driving Challenge, a new high school STEM activity developed for this year’s 2020 Innov8 Event: National STEM Day. The Distracted Driving Challenge uses Arial font so that it can be easily edited to customize event dates, local contacts, etc.

       

       

      Future City Competition: Volunteering

      Learn more about the Future City Competition Program: https://futurecity.org

      Learn how you can get involved with the Future City Competition program in your region: https://futurecity.org/regions

      Future City 2020 Transportation Award Winner

      City Name: Salt Lake City
      Team Members: Allison Rice, Nicolas Yendrzeski, Marley Polosky
      Educator: Janell Hudson
      Mentor: Robyn Rice
      School: Maricopa Wells Middle School   
      Future City Region: Arizona

       

       

      Future City 2018 Transportation Award Winner

       

      2019 K-12 STEM Competition Winners!

      The 2019 K–12 STEM competition, designed to promote, encourage, and celebrate STEM-related activities among ITE members. The 2019 competition had a fantastic turnout with 13 entries total. This year, two categories were offered—one for small projects, and one for large.

      Large Category Winner

      The Georgia ITE Section/GA Chapter of the Southern District took home the prize in the Large Category for its project, “GA ITE STEM Day 2019.” On STEM Day, members from across the Georgia Section visited local schools to teach students about the transportation profession and helped promote our industry to the next generation.

       

      Small Category Winner

      The National Capital Section/Carleton University Chapter within the Canadian District was the winner of the Small Category for its project, “Intro to Transportation Engineering.” During the event, participants ages 11-14 got the chance to work with real transportation engineers and engineering students to solve hypothetical transportation problems set in their community.

      Both winners will receive $250 to use toward future STEM related projects and activities in their area. Stay tuned for a full overview of the award winning projects, photos, and a competition overview in the February ITE Journal.

      Have you been asked to share what you do with younger students? The activities and presentations below are specific to introducing K-12 kids to what ITE does – transportation!