Thanks for your interest in our exciting interdisciplinary project designed for High School students.  You can use this to enrich your Social Studies work or use it for independent study. It also provides a chance for your students to win a contest: schools throughout the five boroughs will be submitting their Public Service Announcements to win a cash prize for the school.  You can participate at no cost to your school.

• Use our fun, creative materials to find out how many of your students walk (or walk to transit)
• Easily engage your whole school or just your classroom in the project
• A commitment of only a few minutes of your whole school’s time
• All handouts, and instructions can be downloaded for free

To Do Step 1

Collect the data from your whole school or classroom

Participating classroom teachers can collect data from the entire school using this survey form any time before October 21st.  You can also opt to just collect data from your class – or from a group of classes.

By handing out surveys during homeroom or a school event, students record how they get to school each day.  Numbers should be recorded for three days to get good sample.

• Easily send us the numbers you collect.  Simply fill out the online registration form.
• Automatically qualify for the contest when you input the data!
• Use in-class exercises to crunch the numbers with your students, and learn about personal carbon footprint and how streets could be improved for pedestrians and transit riders
• Help your students stage a small-scale event on “Walk to School Day”, October 7th, 2009 or participate in our city-wide celebration in Manhattan.

How do I send the data?

• After you have collected three days’ worth of data, give us your numbers.  You can give us this information by signing up for an account and signing in.

**ALL DATA IS DUE BEFORE ON OCTOBER 21st, 2009 (Deadline Extended) BEFORE MIDNIGHT.**

What connection activities are there?

We’ve created these lesson plans to go with the numbers you have collected.  These are simple ways to make sense of the numbers and get ready to make your contest entry!

Crunching the numbers

Download a pie chart lesson plan and template to analyze the data.  Students will be amazed to see just how many people commute by foot and transit!

How are the streets organized?

Take a neighborhood walk and explore infrastructure to learn how streets are designed for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders around your school.

Personal Carbon Footprint

Find out how personal carbon footprint relates to transportation choices as we get around the City.

How can we celebrate?

Take the morning of October 7th to put up posters, challenge students to walk, if they don’t – or walk farther if they come from transportation.  The International Walk to School Day website has great ideas for creating small scale events and helping families learn about the benefits of walking.  Check out this link for great ideas. You will need to modify the ideas to better suit High School-aged students.

http://www.walktoschool-usa.org/eventideas/ideas-list.cfm

You can also come Celebrate Walking to School with us on October 7th by clicking on the button on the upper left hand corner.

Create your Public Service Announcement with your students and enter it in the contest.  Go to the Contest Page for more information