Engaging in Transportation Engineering Initiatives with K-12 Students

Elementary & Middle School Centennial Place Academy

OverviewGeorgia Tech researchers and students are working with 5th and 6th graders at the local public elementary school to expose students to transportation engineering data collection, analysis, research design, critical thinking, and planning.

About Centennial Place Academy Demographics: 86% African American, 5% Caucasian, 3%

Hispanic, 2% Asian, 4% Multi Racial 71% of students are eligible for the free/reduced lunch program. Student population comes from the Centennial Place neighborhood

and includes two shelters. First conversion charter in the Atlanta Public School System.

Opening SessionThe partnership kicked off in Summer 2014 with a large event that reached over 80 fifth grade students and involved 10 graduate students and researchers. The students were given an exciting transportation presentation followed by hands-on activities. These included mode choice mapping and modeling, accessibility challenges using wheelchairs, and paper and electronic travel diary activities.

Hands-On Research SessionsThe follow-up sessions will occur in Fall 2014 and will be conducted with 20 sixth graders who choose to participate after the opening session. The students will be split into groups, and have graduate students assigned to mentor them in the following modules. Module 1 - Mode Choice: Discuss transportation mode choices

and use class as a sample to map and analyze a full dataset. Module 2- Accessibility: Students explore accessibility through

mobility activities as wheelchair users. Module 3- Traffic Engineering: Introduce the technique of vehicle

counting; demonstrate its application in traffic engineering. Module 4- Roadway Environments: Introduce students to

perceived complexity of roadway environments for all users.

Yanzhi (Ann) Xu, Michael P. Hunter, Randall Guensler, Alice Grossman, Atiyya Shaw, Prabha Pratyaksa, Aaron Greenwood

OverviewThe Georgia Institute of Technology is involved in several K-12 outreach initiatives in the Metro Atlanta area. Transportation researchers and students at Georgia Tech strongly believe it is important to be involved in the larger community and attract young talent and ideas to the dynamic and challenging world of transportation engineering. These programs and initiatives are especially important for providing support and contact with members of underrepresented groups in transportation engineering such as women and minorities.

Middle School Summer CampsUniversity Transportation Center

OverviewFor two years, NCTSPM has partnered with Chamblee Middle School, Forest Park High School, and Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Math, and Computing (CEISMC) to host Summer STEM programs focused on developing innovative transportation related curricula for use in middle and high school classrooms.

Students used Construct 2 application development software to develop transportation themed Snowpocalypse application

Students visited the GDOT Traffic Management Center

Learning about the HERO Unit Response Vehicles at the Georgia Department of Transportation

Summer Camps Two-week long summer camps

were hosted in 2013 and 2014. Students focused on applying

transportation principles to app development.

Graduate students presented a wide array of transportation engineering research and application topics.

Topics presented include: Social networks and their

impact on travel behavior Visual complexity in roadway

design Traffic operations and

monitoring Transportation planning and

equity Safety in transportation

Curricula Development Transportation Curricula

developed at conclusion of camp for implementation in classrooms.

Teachers from Atlanta area schools were selected through the Georgia Intern Fellowships for Teachers (GIFT) program.

Chamblee Middle School principal implemented a STEM program focused on transportation after 2013 Summer Camp.

Data Collection with students

High School OutreachDecatur & Kennesaw Mountain High School

OverviewGeorgia Tech transportation has a long history of education initiatives aimed at the high school level.  This provides exposure to transportation at a time when most students are making decisions about colleges and future career choices. Two of the most recent examples are shown below.

Decatur High SchoolGraduate researchers at Georgia Tech brought undergraduate mentees to Decatur High School to carry out research planning and data collection activities related to Georgia Tech’s Sidewalk Quality research project.

Goals and Objectives Develop skills in research design, data collection and analysis,

critical thinking, and transportation planning. Illustrate to students that transportation is a multidisciplinary field

suited to people with diverse skill sets. Show students that transportation engineering is an accessible

and interesting discipline that affects everyone. Provide an overview of transportation engineering and showcase

real-world applications and project-based learning. Encourage young women and minorities to consider a career in

engineering. Provide volunteer opportunities for undergraduate and graduate

level students.

Kennesaw Mountain High SchoolIn a pilot run this year, the Safety and Operations Lab at Georgia Tech is hosting a Kennesaw Mountain High School Magnet student as a high school intern. The student is studying the driver performance of high school students in complex driving environments, and will design and run a research experiment at her high school. This initiative supports the efforts of area Magnet high schools in providing science, math, and technology education to deserving students.

Data collection using wheelchairs

These activities are sponsored by the Georgia Department of Transportation, STRIDE and NCTSPM. Opinions expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the sponsors.

Students took turns using wheelchairs to test the accessibility of labs, libraries, and classrooms at their school

Georgia Tech students and researchers at opening session presentation with Centennial fifth graders