SmartRiders and Scavenger Hunts

Sarah Adams
Kalamunda Senior High School
82

It's been a very busy term with so much happening around our school! Late in Term 2 our student sustainability committee decided that Kalamunda Day, celebrated every August, would provide an excellent opportunity for us to engage with the student population and promote sustainability. We organised two activities, a Sustainability Scavenger Hunt and a SmartRider Raffle for students to enjoy and we ensured they were published in our Daily Notices in the lead up to the big day.

The SmartRider Raffle was designed to promote student understanding of active transport options. Earlier this year we completed a Hands Up Travel Survey which shows travel by bus is the main method of travel to our school. Approximately 60% of our students travel by bus, so it's important that their SmartRider is carried on a daily basis. We used our points from the Your Move program to purchase prizes and created a stall for students to visit. If students could produce their SmartRider then they were granted entry to the raffle (we did not collect SmartRiders!). Each entrant completed a quick and easy form that asked them to view the data from our Hands Up Travel Survey and correctly identify the most commonly used mode of active travel. We had dozens of students queuing up to enter the raffle and many more who were disappointed to not have their SmartRider with them! This provided a great opportunity to discuss the benefits of SmartRider travel and encourage individuals to keep it with them on a daily basis. Our winner walked away with a $50 Rebel Sports voucher and a runner up won a Your Move drink bottle prize pack.

In addition to our raffle, we also organised a Sustainability Scavenger Hunt. Our student committee has a broad focus, looking after sustainability across the school, so our scavenger hunt considered water, power, waste, ecosystems and travel methods. Students formed teams of up to five students, were armed with cameras and given a set of cryptic clues. They explored the grounds looking for evidence of sustainable practice at our school. Aligning with our commitment to the Your Move program, we asked students to locate and count the school's bike racks and offered them bonus points if they could mime active methods of travel in some of their photographs. This allowed us to encourage more students to reflect on our Hands Up Travel Survey data and of course suggest they enter our SmartRider Raffle. We had two teams of Year 8 students tie for first place with winners receiving prize packs that included a Your Move drink bottle.

Both these activities were successful, particularly given it is the first time we have attempted anything like it. Next year we would like to organise 'sign ups' for the scavenger hunt before the day of the event so we can assign timeslots and create signage around the school to help guide teams. With some further planning we could increase the number of students entering the raffle by putting up posters in addition to our use of the Daily Notices. The feedback from students was really positive and students were excited to participate! It proved a very valuable exercise which can grow with time.

This story is related to Promote active travel

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James (Your Move)

Well your big day was matched by an equally big (and newsworthy!) story posting - well done! It seems like all the thought and planning really paid off. You received 25 points for each of your activities, plus 20 points for enough details to help others do something similar. There was also a bonus 5 for your reflections on the day and potential future improvements.

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James (Your Move)

I'm interested to know how you chose the topic of smartriders as your raffle focus. Do you have issues with students trying to travel without one?

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Sarah

Hi James, Our school is bordered by the main road that runs through Kalamunda and we have three different buses that collect students in the afternoon from this road.The road is a single carriageway so when our buses are queued up it can cause a backlog of traffic on the main road which also impacts our crossing area. When I have been on bus duty it is clear that students forgetting their smartrider (or losing it during the day) contributes to slow boarding and it has a huge flow on effect.

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