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We held an end of year meeting today with a group of Year 8 students. We had a bit of a 'sustainability marathon' which kicked off with a review of transport options and planning on ways we can improve our use of active travel in 2020.
Firstly, students were provided with our newest Hands Up Travel Survey data from earlier this term. We discussed areas of improvement as well as areas of potential growth. We have avid walkers and cyclists in this group of students which is a real bonus as their interests in active transport are infectious!
After considering the travel data students were broken into groups of 3-4 students and provided A3 paper. We then completed a brainstorming activity that asked students to consider different methods of travel and how we could promote student uptake within our school community.
Students were asked to consider the following:
- What is enjoyable about the method of transport
- What are the benefits?
- What are the perceived disadvantages?
- What are the ways we can make it more attractive to students?
It was great to see students consider this carefully and come up with some excellent ideas. Students spoke about the current bike infrastructure and that more security would make them feel more comfortable having their bikes at school. Others talked about the social benefits of walking with a friend or being able to chat with others on the bus.
Overall, many students felt education, promotion, and reward were key ways to improve the number of students walking and taking the bus. One student suggested a pedometer challenge where students who walked to school could prove they walked by the number of steps they had taken. Others agreed a raffle would be a great way to get more students on their bikes (this is already planned for the coming weeks as part of Bike Month).
The information collected during our student meeting is really valuable and we are now very close to finalising our 2020 goals!
An outline of the meeting design (which doubles as a lesson plan) is also attached.
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Arlene
Love the thinking & problem solving going on here with these young people, Sarah. Some great ideas here & ways to sort the challenges. Well done, everyone!
Report commentJames (Your Move)
A very effective session Sarah! Thanks heaps for giving enough details to allow others to replicate this (20 bonus points for that!) plus also upload a really useful lesson plan (another bonus of 20 points). Make sure you let us know what the final priorities are that come out of the mix.
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