Bicycle math in primary school

We all know that bicycles have a direct positive impact on quality of life.

There are umpteen ways bicycles improve our lives: health, fitness, environmental, friendships, mental health, transport, employment opportunities, leisure, competition, and travel are just a few.

Bicycles can also play a key role in education and intellectual development.

Bicycles are increasingly being used in teaching and learning. For young learners, bicycles are familiar, yet have a complex technical component that makes their design, engineering and physics unique – also also perfect for math-related learning!

Previously, we have looked at how bicycles are used in higher education:

• The world’s first 3-D printed bicycle (Griffith Uni).
• Using bicycles to teach Engineering and system dynamics
• Win (an ex-student of mine) used bicycles as the topic for a class report.

But it is also good to see bicycles being integrated into primary school math classes. Online, a number of proactive and innovative teachers have created and freely share their bicycle-related math lessons.

There are so many ways to improve numeracy and problem-solving skills using bicycles.

It is impressive to see how bicycles can be used to learn key math principles like patterns and algebra, fractions, decimals and percentages, angles, units of measurement, place value, operations, location and transformation, problem-solving, chance, shape, graphs and data, mathematics investigations and numbers skills – especailly at hte primary levels.

Designing a bicycle Helmet – 4^th grade

One of the more novel bicycle math resources I saw was for 4^th graders to learn about bike helmet design. I like this lesson, becuase it was not just about counting bicycle icons, but actually using different aspects of bicycle riding to explore a range of math concepts with early learners.

This resource came fromTeaching Engineering – STEM curriculum K-12. It designed by Making the Connection, Women in Engineering Programs and Advocates Network (WEPAN).

For this piece of work, students gain experience of the engineering principles needed to design safety gear. Students are introduced to the biomechanical characteristics of helmets, and are challenged to incorporate them into designs for helmets used for various applications. By doing this, they come to understand the role of engineering associated with safety products. To do this effectively, helmets must have some sort of crushable material to absorb the collision forces and a strap system to make sure the protection stays in place. The exact design of a helmet depends on the needs and specifications of the user.

This comprehensive resource also includes info on Engineering principles, learning objectives, educational standards justification, materials and a whole heap of worksheets exploring different aspects of helmet design.

Bicycle math in primary schools

There are also heaps of worksheets and online quizzes that can be used in class or for homework to reinforce and practice key math skills like multiplication, addition, fractions and calculating speeds, distances and other measurements.

Here are just a few examples:

• Math problems TLS Books
• Bikes & Trikes Assessment
• Syvum

Below are some examples of how bicycles are being used for primary school math. What a great way to promote bicycles and learn math!

I certainly would have been more engaged in my early math classes if we applied what we were learning to ‘real world’ scenarios with something as familiar, fun and useful as bicycles.

I’d love to see more bicycles being used in school curriculum!