These educational materials, developed by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, highlight the connection between transportation modes and the environment. This page includes downloadable resources and lesson plans for grades 3-8.
Middle & Lower High School Curricular Unit
The SMART MOVES Middle School Curriculum offers a flexible tool for teaching many community issues—citizenship, environmental awareness, safety, and health—to help students to become active citizens. It was designed by educational consultants contracted by the City of Portland Office of Transportation. The lessons included here are not specific to Portland, or can be easily adapted to other localities. The full curriculum is available at http://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/40561.
The Clean Air Campaign, a Georgia-based non-profit that promotes transportation alternatives to improve air quality, has developed a series of downloadable lesson plans for grades 3 through 8. These plans feature activities and assignments about air pollution - what it is, how it is caused, what we can do to prevent it and its effects on humans.
Developed by WalkBoston and the Eastern Research Group, Inc., this Safe Routes to School curriculum provides lessons for grades K-5 that teach children about the connections between walking, health, and the environment.
This British curriculum, developed by the Environmental Transport Association, provides a week of lessons that focus on global climate change and local traffic congestion. These plans can be adapted for US grades 5 and 6.
Safe Routes Nebraska recently formulated several standards-based activities to help students learn about walking and biking safety and the importance staying active. These creative activities were designed to teach students in each grade level to understand the health benefits of walking and biking to school as well as how to do it safely.
WalkBoston created the Walk/Bike to School Toolkit to help parents, principals, local officials and anyone with an interest in improving children's safety to set up their own Safe Routes to School programs. The toolkit includes step-by-step advice for organizing a walk to school program and/or pedestrian safety training. Safety training information starts on page 25 of the toolkit.
In 2003, Marin County created several Safe Routes to School lesson plans designed to teach safe walking and biking practices to children in grades K-8. Additional lesson plans created by Marin County focus on everything from fitness/personal health to environmental issues.
This tip sheet offers guidance for liability issues with walking or bicycling to school.
