How safe is personal transport?

Personal transport is becoming safer as technological advancements are made and more and more safety features are designed. In this fun STEM activity students will consider what safety features are in use today.

Can you analyse data to work out which form of personal transport is currently the least safe?

Activity: How safe is personal transport?

Students will first name some personal transport methods, including those they use. In pairs they can discuss any safety features of these methods, why they are important and then they will rank the transport systems in order of how safe they think they are.

Students may need to be told what we mean by personal transport. Examples they could come up with include car, motorcycle, walking, bike or skateboard.

The ‘Safety statistics A’ handout includes a chart which shows the proportion of reported road casualties by road user type and severity in Great Britain in 2012. The students will then interpret the data and write down what it shows. They can then compare this to the ranking they did in the discussion earlier. The handout shows that car occupants and pedestrians are the most common types of road casualties.

How do you think safety can by improved for car occupants and pedestrians? Ask the students to think about what safety measures already exist and then ask them to think about what features cars should have in the future.

This engaging activity that is the perfect way for KS3 students to develop their critical thinking skills.

How long will this activity take?

This activity will take approximately 30-59 minutes to complete.

Tools/resources required

• Projector/whiteboard

The engineering context

Car and road safety engineers are professionals who are responsible for designing and developing vehicles and road systems that are safe for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. They work on various aspects of vehicle and road safety, including crash testing, airbag seatbelt development, pedestrian protection, and traffic control systems. These engineers use their knowledge of physics, mechanics, and materials science to develop innovative solutions to improve vehicle and road safety. They also work closely with government agencies, automakers, and other organisations to develop and enforce safety regulations and standards. The work of car and road safety engineers is vital to ensuring the safety of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians on our roads.

Suggested learning outcomes

By the end of this activity students will be able to interpret data from a chart, discuss the importance of safety features in personal transport and identify car and road safety features.

Download the free How safe is personal transport? activity sheet below!

All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs.

The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

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