Bike Club
Sometimes a chance meeting can turn into something wonderful. That is just what happened when two representatives from Springfield Local Schools, Taryn Miley and Cheri Copeland-Shull, went to a Northwest Ohio Center for Excellence in STEM Education meeting at Bowling Green State University. This was more than three years ago and during that chance meeting, Mrs. Miley, the district’s curriculum director, and Mrs. C, recently retired principal at Dorr Elementary School, were introduced to an assistant professor of engineering education from Ohio Northern University. When introduced, they quickly realized that Dr. Todd France was a Blue Devil alumni and had even attended kindergarten at Dorr Elementary. This began a networking relationship that would span the pandemic years to create the Bike Club, a program that has benefitted students in grades four and five, and taught important lessons about bikes and associated STEAM principles (science, technology, engineering, arts, math).
As often happens, the partnership ignited the involvement of additional organizations, including the Safe Kids Coalition, the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, students from Springfield High Schools’ National Honor Society and Dick’s Sporting Goods. As with bicycles, there were a lot of moving parts to bring the Bike Club program to fruition. Consider:
•First, funding needs were identified. Fortunately, grants were obtained through Dr. France and the Ohio Learning Science Network Classroom that provided the funding to obtain bikes, locks, pumps and other accessories for safe bike riding.
•Next, the curriculum to help students learn about bike safety and how to maintain a bike using STEAM-related practices was needed.
•We also needed a process to select students for the afterschool bike program designed to provide hands-on opportunities to use these skills. An application process for one of the 25 available spots in the program was created and presentations were made in Dorr’s fourth and fifth grade classrooms to encourage participation and applications were made available.
•Using the grant funding, bikes and accessories were purchased through a partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Then, the process went into high gear. Students filled out the applications, and were thoughtfully selected and the fun began. The club was designed as an after-school program and our partners, with support from our volunteers, emphasized the importance of bike helmets, proper fitting of the helmets and road safely.
The sessions were fun, and the students remained attentive and engaged throughout–imagine learning about the parts of a bike. Toledo Bikes staff provided demonstrations regarding the addition of a kickstand, attaching a tire gauge and pump, changing gears, adjusting the brakes, taking tire pressure and changing a tire.
Dr. France also led lessons on STEAM related concepts of rotational inertia, gear ratios, and radius, diameter and circumference and how it converts the number of rotations to linear distance. The students were then able to relate the concepts to the use of the bikes.
The Bike Club was well received by students and families, and we are extremely thankful for the wonderful community partnerships that were developed while helping students learn practical and relatable skills through the use of bikes.
Sometimes a chance meeting can have an impactful outcome. Thank you to Dr. France, Dick’s Sporting Goods, the Ohio Center of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Safe Kids, Springfield High School’s National Honor Society and Toledo Bikes for making this more than a chance meeting; together, we created something wonderful for kids and demonstrated again how much fun it is to learn.
