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)