Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Resources

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!

K-12 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 – 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 – 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 - 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 - 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 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: ASCE Civil Engineering Transportation Resources Module NanoSonic University of Minnesota K–12 Traffic Engineering Curriculum  Northeast Transportation Workforce Center Lesson Plans  Southeastern Transportation Research Innovation, Development and Education Center Course Materials  City of San Jose Street Smarts Mini Metro Streetmix

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: Which Piece Fits You Best?        
Brian Bochner

Traffic Engineering and Transportation Planning        
Dyan C. Damron

Engineering?       
Alyssa Reynolds

Transportation Engineering    
Grant Schultz

Careers in Transportation and Engineering 
Monica Suter

Careers in Transportation Planning        
Phil Winters

Can Bike Manitoba

Additional Resources

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

• GirlStart: Hands-On Wednesday
• How to Smile
• iExploreSTEM Engineering Activities
• ASCEville Resources
• PBS Kids Engineering
• DiscoverE Activites 
• Try Engineering
• STEM Exploring the Science of Retroreflectivity
• STEM Resources and Activities for Teens – Compiled by the University of North Dakota

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):

• CIHT Inspiring the Next Generation

These sites have information about transportation engineering and planning careers:

• Iowa State University: Go Explore Transportation
• Transportation You
• Fast Forward
• Start
• Science Buddies: Transportation Engineer

These sites have general information about introducing kids to engineering:

• Baylor University recently published the toolkit "How to Identify Effective STEM Activities for Children” that helps parents and teachers know what to look for in a STEM lesson and offers nine examples of quality online resources. Read the full article here: https://onlinegrad.baylor.edu/resources/identify-effective-stem-activities-children/. (Baylor’s EdD online in Learning and Organizational Change.)

• Engineer Girl
• ASCE Pre-College Outreach
• USA Science & Engineering Festival
• Future City Competition

Future City 2018 Transportation Award Winner