Open up this lesson with a simple series of questions: Who here rides a bike? Do you ride your bike to school, to the grocery store or around the neighborhood? Where do you store and keep your bike?
Talk about transportation in general throughout your region and community. Is it bike friendly? Why or why not? What kinds of design elements deter users from riding bikes instead of driving in cars? Talk about some of the benefits and problems with bicycle transportation.
Conduct a simple survey about your classes opinion about bikes. Create a mind map on the board of reasons why or why students don’t ride to school and other issues brought up through the discussion.
Next, shift student’s attention toward some of the environmental benefits bikes offer your community and some of the environmental issues related to automobile use. Start by focusing in on some of the issues outlined below:
Each year, the United States produces about 10% of the world's petroleum but consumes about 26% of the world's total production. Cars and light trucks are the single largest users of petroleum, consuming about 43% of the total. Overall, cars and light trucks consume about 16% of the total energy used in the U.S.
Although great strides have been made at reducing air pollution from automobile exhaust over the past 30 years, on-road motor vehicles still account for a significant proportion of air pollution:
(Source: Federal Highway Administration Transportation Air Quality: Selected Facts and Figures 2002)
Water
There are a number of ways automobile use results in water pollution:
• Runoff of oil, dirt, brake dust, deposited vehicle exhaust, road particles, automotive fluids, and deicing chemicals from roadways and parking lots.
• Leaking underground fuel storage tanks.
• Improperly disposed of waste fluids, e.g. used motor oil.
Make sure to connect these issues to your student’s personal health and neighborhood. Things like air and water quality affect everyone even if we don’t see it every day. To drive home this point, talk about air quality and asthma in your community and pull out local roadmaps and talk about the urban planning and design of the region. Ask students to consider if your community is “bike friendly”. Is it easy to ride from place to place using a bike and not just a car? Why and why not?
End your discussion by thinking about how bikes can help to offset some of the environmental problems brought up in the previous discussion. Bikes consume no fossil fuels, do not emit greenhouse gases, are quiet and are healthy for people in terms of exercise. If more people used bikes in your town or city how would this impact your local environment?
Extended Survey - The School Community (5-10 minutes - Frame/Reframe)
Now have students investigate their school and community at large. Find out if any bike racks are located on school property or can be found in nearby neighborhoods. Ask students to map where these bike racks are located.
Extend your initial survey school wide and see if any students/teachers ride to school. Why or why not? As a class create a list of barriers alongside some potential solutions to making bikes more popular in the school.
Bike Rack Remix! Part One (15 minutes - Generate)
To make a statement about the need for more bike use in your area, students will now be challenged to design a bike rack for their school.
However, before starting your Bike Rack Remix project talk to students about a bike rack design competition organized by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum for the 2010 National Design Triennial:
NYC Hoop Rack - One simple way to encourage increased bike use in urban areas is to provide bicycle lanes and parking in both commercial and residential locations. A study has shown that a lack of secure bike parking is the main reason why people do not cycle to work. In 2008, New York City’s Department of Transportation, in partnership with Cooper-Hewitt and with the support of Transportation Alternatives and Google, organized an international competition for a sidewalk bike rack. The winner was the NYC Hoop Rack, created by two designers in Denmark, Ian Mahaffy and Maarten de Greeve. This elegant, no-fuss, minimal design will become the new standard bicycle rack on the city’s sidewalks. Over the next three years, five thousand racks are expected to be installed citywide. The Hoop Rack, a 34” circle made of cast metal and bisected by a horizontal bar, can withstand the harsh environment of city streets and is destined to become an iconic member of the urban streetscape.
Ask students to think about how the design of the rack will affect its street presence and usability.
Another great resource found in the Design Triennial’s Catalog is also the
IF Mode Folding Bicycle, which is made of lightweight materials, eliminates oily chains, complex tubes and has full-size wheels. According to the designer Mark Sanders, “Instead of looking at the bike and thinking of how to fold it, it began with the folded shape and thinking of how to turn it into a bike.” Furthermore, as mobility systems become increasingly interconnected, portable, designs like these will facilitate transfers between different modes of transportation. Like laptops, they might eventually become a standard piece of one’s luggage
Divide students into design teams and challenge each team to develop a bike rack for their school. What would it look like?
Give students some basic measurements to work with. What is the basic size of a bike and how big would the rack need to be. As a class determine a location where the bike rack, or where an additional or expanded rack may be. Ask the principal for approval before starting this process.
Each group will generate sketches and use basic geometry to develop proper dimensions of their bike rack. Start with a top view sketch, followed by a side view and isometric sketch of the bike rack.
Use rulers, compasses and other equipment to help students create a detailed design and sketch of their bike racks. Use relevant math lessons to help students think about ratios (and fractions) to build a model or actual prototype.
Math Connection
Most bikes are about five feet in length and less than a half foot in width (not counting some larger handles). If you need to store 10 bikes at your bike rack and each needs at least 1 foot for spacing - what would the total length and width of your bike rack system be?
Can you think of another design that would reduce the length of the bike rack by 15% without affecting the number of bikes the rack can hold?
DAY TWO
Bike Rack Remix! Part Two (1 day, Edit and Develop)
After a 20-30 minute design session, have each team finalize their designs.
If possible, as a class build a prototype or model of one of the team’s proposed bike rack. Find scrap wood, use an old palette or have someone from the community conduct a tutorial in your classroom.
Work with your principal to find a place on campus where the bike rack can be properly installed.
Have students measure pieces of the bike rack and have an adult or volunteer cut each piece.
If you can’t find time or materials to build a full-scale prototype use pipe cleaners and wood sticks to develop models that are to scale.
Share your bike rack designs with the school community. If time allows - develop a concept for a bike system around your community. Where would more bike racks need to be installed?
Each design team should be challenged to design a bike system map that connects the school to key neighborhoods, downtown locations and natural areas. (Share and Evaluate)
Present the new bike map and rack system to the entire school and post in a public community space. (Finalize)