Tracksafe Education, our national rail safety partners have just opened a nation competition for High School Students to help raise awareness of pedestrian level crossing safety which is a huge issue – not just nationally but also on our very own network here in Perth.
The issue
8% of serious injuries at Australian pedestrian level crossings each year happen in young people under 14. But for 15-24 year olds, the figure jumps to a massive 31%. This needs to change!
There’s no better time than now to innovate on pedestrian level crossing safety. We think young people have what it takes to come up with fresh ideas to address this very serious issue.
Young people helping young people. Awesome.
The challenge
Create an innovative solution to reduce the chances of injuries or fatalities occurring at pedestrian level crossings.
Working in a team of 2 to 4, apply design thinking to create an innovative solution to a pedestrian level crossing safety issue using science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) principles, to make young people’s crossing experiences safer.
Students need to:
- Design
use design thinking to create an original device to address this challenge. They’ll need to show how they empathise, define, ideate, develop a prototype and test the ideas they develop.
- Pitch
create a video pitch: film themselves pitching their design to the judges (maximum 3 minutes).
The competition is open to all Australian high school students in teams (minimum 2 and maximum 4 students) in two categories:
- Year 7 & 8 (ages 12 to 14)
- Year 9 & 10 (ages 14 to 16)
This competition is a fantastic way of bringing STEM to life in your classroom. The competition can easily fit within your normal teaching program due to the strong curriculum links.
For more information or to download a competition pack check out the TrackSAFE Education website