Bicycle Education Program
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New Hope Community Bikes New Hope Community Bikes has long been a leader when it comes to educating children and youth about bicycle safety and maintenance. Here we see some participants in New Hope’s innovative after school bike program.
About Us As a registered charity and not-for-profit, New Hope Community Bikes offers extensive education opportunities to learn both bike repair skills and cycling safety skills. New Hope Community Bikes has been providing bike repair and safety workshops for schools and community groups in Hamilton since 2011 and is widely regarded as the hub of cycling safety initiatives in the city. When the city wanted to build a pool of certified instructors to teach CAN-Bike classes, they looked to New Hope Community Bikes to recruit the students and make sure the training took place. Likewise, as Bike for Mike distributes nearly 1000 new bicycles each year to area schools, they look to New Hope Community Bikes to provide much needed
3 In 2017 NHCB started a high school mountain bike team with students from Delta and Sir John A. MacDonald Secondary Schools.
safety training for staff and students. Ride Smart of our instructors have a valid vulnerable sector makes it easy to offer students a unique, hands on screening and CAN-Bike 4 training. Ride Smart has learning experience without leaving your school. become a great success in the Hamilton school area. In the first year of programming 730 students participated at 7 different schools in Hamilton. In 2016, 1460 students participated, and 1210 more in 2017. A total of 3400 students to date from 26 Our education program is designed to develop schools. practical life-long skills through safe cycling. Using the Ontario physical health and education curriculum, our program is engaging and interactive, equipping students with new skills and cycling abilities. Ride Smart skills create safer riders and Even students who have never ridden a bike before safer future drivers. The program is based on two or need some extra assistance will receive focused reputable sources: CAN-Bike, the national stan- attention in a small group with their own instructor. dard for safe cycling programs, and the Guide to When she/he masters straight line riding they will Ride curriculum created by Physical and Health join the larger group as everyone celebrates the Education Canada. A CAN-Bike certified instruc- success of the new cyclist in tor is responsible for program staff training and all their class!
Life Long Skills Through Physical Education
First time rider? They learn too
3400
students trained since 2015
300+ new riders since 2015
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Fully Self Supported Our cycling education program is designed to minimize barriers to participation. Past experience has taught us that the success of school cycling education is dependent on students bringing their own bikes. However, many students do not always have access to a bike in working condition, or are unable to bring their bike to school because of transportation issues. To address this problem, the Ride Smart Program has been designed to be completely self contained: we provide the bikes, helmets, instructors, resource materials and even the obstacles needed to set up different scenarios. Ride Smart has two full classsets of bikes meaning that each student will have a bike to participate in the program. This format makes it very easy, even for teachers with little to no cycling experience, to enroll their class in the program. We also provide a helmet and bicycle for the teacher too if they want to participate. The skills portion of the program will be run outside on school pavement with some components using grassy areas. Teacher time commitment outside of the program is minimal requiring only the collection of registration details prior to the beginning of the program.
Who Is It For? Ride Smart programming is designed for Grade 4 to 7 students. Results to date have shown that this age group engages well with the material and excels at learning new cycling skills. Curriculum resources to support the cycling program from Physical Health and Education Canada are available for Grades 4-6. http://www.phecanada.ca/ resources/guide-to-ride
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With a second program trailer and class set of bikes for spring 2018, Ride Smart can be at two schools every week! Above: The fully equipped program provides a class set of bikes on-site at the school. Made possible through a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Left: A grade six student shows his enthusiasm for the Ride Smart Program with a big “peace sign”. Bottom: Students and parents attend an after school repair session
After School Repairs We don’t want students to have a great cycling experience, learn new skills and then go home to a broken or unsafe bike. On a scheduled day during the program students will be encouraged to bring their own bike to school and we’ll tune it up and fix it on the spot after school. Skilled mechanics with a full set of tools and parts will make quick work of tune-ups, further reducing barriers to riding to school. Basic tune-ups usually
cost anywhere from $30.00 - $50.00, but are included for each student with the participation fee. Students will learn basic maintenance skills through the program and how to perform a basic bike safety check and will be encouraged to participate in performing maintenance on their own bikes with the help of mechanics.
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Time
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
40-60 min class
In-class Session /Assembly:
Straight line riding
Slalom course
Bike handling skills
Hand signals
Braking and body position
Emergency Braking
Principles of safety Bike safety check Helmet and bike fitting
Gear changing Shoulder check Turning
High Speed Causes of crashes Cornering Navigating Rock dodge Obstacles
Where to ride
Slow speed obstacles Balance games
Figure eight
Types of bicycles 1.5 hours
After School Tune-ups - day chosen by school
The Program
The Cost
The Ride Smart Program requires a week long commitment to building skills inside and outside the classroom, a total of 4-5 class periods. This amount of time ensures that students are able to understand concepts and develop skills to a high level of competency. Ride Smart can be booked for up to 6 classes per week with each class receiving the program one periods per day.
The base cost is $1,500 per week which works out to $10.0015.00 per student and includes the after school basic tune-up and repair. There is a $100 booking fee for the program paid by the school. This booking fee is deducted from the total student cost in the final invoice. The participation fee goes only towards operating costs, and all of the equipment has been provided by grant funding. If price is a barrier to participation for individual students, New Hope Community Bikes can waive the fee at the teacher’s discretion. External funding has allowed the program to be largely subsidized and sometimes offered for free. Please contact us to see if your school qualifies for funding.
LEFT: Slow speed parking lot drills help to build rider confidence and skills
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Learning Outcomes
Ride Smart encourages students to develop a decision making framework that will keep them safe as they ride. Based on the core teaching of CAN-Bike, and Physical Health and Education Canada’s Guide to Ride Program. Students will learn how to make themselves: manoeuvrable, visible, predictable and able to communicate while they ride. These principles are reinforced in the classroom and in skill building activities and can be applied to all riding situations. Our education program also supports the following curriculum outcomes:
Curriculum Tie-ins Health and Safety, Injury Prevention >> Basic traffic concepts and rules >> Appreciation of the bike as a vehicle >> Importance of wearing a helmet and appropriate clothing >> Traffic signs and traffic dynamics >> Safe cyclists make safe drivers
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Physical Activity >> Benefits of cycling, healthy lifestyle >> Cycling skills, balance, motion, control of bicycle. >> Promoting cycling as a life long activity
Social Studies >> Environmental benefits of cycling >> Responsible citizenship, sharing the road >> Reduced carbon footprint
Mathematics >> Calculate cost of riding a bicycle versus driving a car, ownership of both >> Determine how to set up a bicycle computer using principles of measurement, circumference. >> Calculate time required to travel distance on a map
Assessment Teachers may choose to assess learning outcomes through variety of manners. We will provide assessment rubrics for skills development, as well as sample tests that can be used outside of the Ride Smart time frame to measure student’s level of competency. Students who complete all 5 sessions and demonstrate skill development will be presented with a Ride Smart certificate of achievement. A student practices balance and weight shift while riding the portable pump track features.
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Students play a balance game called “Elimination”. Slow speed skills equals high speed confidence.
How to Schedule a Ride Smart Program
Ride Smart is now being booked in order of request. When you decide that your class or school wants to participate in the program simply e-mail info@newhopecommunitybikes.com with the following information. ◊◊ Teacher/Principal Name, ◊◊ Preferred week for program, ◊◊ Number of students to participate from each grade (4,5,6,7). ◊◊ Send the $100 deposit cheque in the mail.
Other Benefits To support the long term benefits of cycling, Ride Smart is partnered with Hamilton Public Health’s Active and Safe Routes to School program to develop School Travel Plans that will help develop routes that can help students get to and from school in a safe and healthy way. If your school is working on a School Travel Plan, completing Ride Smart is an important part of obtaining your Active & Sustainable School Travel (ASST) Certification.
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Program Evaluation Students may be asked to complete a riding comprehension survey before and after the program to gauge effectiveness. Teachers will be asked to help us evaluate the effectiveness of the program by conducting ‘hands-up’ surveys of the number of students that ride to school at regular intervals throughout the year.
A grade 5 student practices his balance skills on the Day 5 or the Ride Smart program. Obstacles reward skill development that takes place throughout the week.
Program Sponsors