The UMVRDC was happy to host Michelle and CJ from The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota (BikeMN) on Wednesday, October 29th. BikeMN brought their recent Walk! Bike! Fun! curriculum to Appleton to train educators and officers from across the five county region about teaching pedestrian and bicycle safety to children. This curriculum is the result of collaboration between the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.
The curriculum aims to help schools and other community members effectively teach children to safely walk and bike to school. It’s designed for grades fourth through sixth, but the information is important for people of all ages to know and understand. During the training, participants reviewed basic pedestrian and bicycle safety rules, practiced teaching lessons from the curriculum, and went on a group ride around the City of Appleton. you can download the Walk! Bike! Fun! Curriculum by clicking on the link.
Part of the training included the ABC Quick Check. The ABC Quick Check is a great tool to check the condition of your bike every time you ride.
All training participants were optimistic about implementing this curriculum in the classroom or at community events such as Bike Rodeos. Teachers bringing this curriculum back to their schools are hoping to be able to co-teach the material. By collaborating with a classroom teacher to show videos and to review material, the active portions of the lessons could be taught by the physical education teachers. Adding more curriculum material to the school year is always a challenging task, but splitting the time between two teachers seemed more manageable.
BikeMN has a fleet of approximately 30 bicycles that teachers across the state can request to teach the curriculum in their schools. This is a great resource and we are encouraging all of the schools in our region to take advantage of this opportunity!
For more information on the Walk! Bike! Fun! Curriculum, please visit http://bikemn.org/education/walk-bike-fun or contact Emily Zandt, Community Development Planner at emily.zandt@umvrdc.org or 320-289-1981 x104.
