Technical Resources

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:

     

    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:

      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):

      These sites have information about transportation engineering and planning careers:

      These sites have general information about introducing kids to engineering:

      Future City 2018 Transportation Award Winner