Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Resources

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: 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

 

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

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

Resources on Introducing Kids to Engineering

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.)

• ADOT Kids - Transportation Activitites for Furture Engineers
• Engineer Girl
• ASCE Pre-College Outreach
• USA Science & Engineering Festival
• Future City Competition
• American University, Helping Girls Succeed in STEM
• Ohio University, K-12 STEM Lesson Plan Guide
• University of Maryland, Data Analytics Tools for STEM Teachers & Students
• American University, Helping Girls Succeed in STEM

Additional K-12 STEM Outreach 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
• The Ultimate STEM Guide for Kids: 239 Cool Sites About Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – compiled by Masters in Data Science
• The University of Central Florida, 5 STEM Space Activities, Resources and Lessons for Students and Educators

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

Featured ITE STEM Committee Activities

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!