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Middle school multimodal safety education curriculum, curated by the Portland Bureau of Transportation's (PBOT) Safe Routes to School program, is primarily for middle school health and PE classes. Two units cover crash prevention, road etiquette, traffic laws, and how to ride transit.
Bring middle school multimodal safety education to your students through a health or PE setting! Safe Routes to School staff will provide free train-the-trainer education to get you started and feeling confident with skills and information.
What is middle school multimodal safety education?
The middle school multimodal safety education curriculum provides educators with two interactive multi-day units covering:
- Health benefits of walking, biking, and rolling — as well as how these travel choices benefit the community
- Oregon traffic safety laws
- How to ride transit
- Road etiquette
- Traffic crash prevention
- Assertive communication in public spaces
Who is it designed for?
The middle school multimodal safety education curriculum is designed for middle school classes. Lessons are paired with Oregon Department of Education's PE Standards.
How does it work?
Safe Routes to School designed two three-day middle school multimodal safety education units. The first unit covers health and transportation safety, crash prevention, road etiquette, and how to ride transit. The second unit expands on the first unit covering health, transportation, and climate.
Unit 1
Three-day education unit on health and transportation safety. This unit features an interactive PowerPoint presentation that covers crash prevention, road etiquette, and how to ride transit.
PowerPoint presentations
Unit 1, Day 1: Active Transportation & Public Spaces (PowerPoint)
- Active transportation & public spaces overview
- Different types of safety
- Tools for your personal security
Unit 1, Day 2: Walking & Taking Transit (PowerPoint)
- Benefits of active transportation
- We are all pedestrians
- Crosswalk laws and tips for success
- How we roll: Transit
Unit 1, Day 3: Safety on Wheels (PowerPoint)
- Oregon laws for human-powered vehicles
- All about Portland streets
- Crash prevention
Presentation PDFs
If you cannot access or download the PowerPoints above, use these PDFs as an alternate option. They will only show the slides without animations, but include teacher notes.
Unit 1, Day 1: Active Transportation & Public Spaces (PDF)
Unit 1, Day 2: Walking & Taking Transit (PDF)
Unit 1, Day 3: Safety on Wheels (PDF)
Instructor resources
Unit 1: Transportation Safety Lesson Plan Outline
Unit 1: Transportation Safety Slides with Notes
Handouts
Unit 1: Three Steps for Assertive Communication
Unit 1: Transportation Safety Quiz
Unit 2
Three-day education unit on health, transportation, and climate. This unit features another interactive PowerPoint presentation in a similar style to Unit One. The first day reviews much of the information from the first unit.
PowerPoint presentations
Unit 2, Day 1: Overview & Review (PowerPoint)
- Principles & Benefits of Active Transportation: Review
- Test your knowledge Jeopardy game
- How we roll: Transit review
Unit 2, Day 2: Tools For Your Personal Security (PowerPoint)
- Communication styles: Review
- Introduction to bystander intervention
Unit 2, Day 3: Climate Action & Transportation in Portland (PowerPoint)
- Transportation & climate change
- Climate action
- Transportation & the media
Presentation PDFs
If you cannot access or download the PowerPoints above, use these PDFs as an alternate option. They will only show the slides without animations, but include teacher notes.
Unit 2, Day 1: Active Transportation Principles Review (PDF)
Unit 2, Day 2: Tools For Your Personal Security (PDF)
Unit 2, Day 3: Climate Action & Transportation in Portland (PDF)
Instructor resources
Unit 2, Day 1: Jeopardy Review Questions
Handouts
Unit 2, Day 3: Active Bystander Video Questions
Unit 2, Day 3: Riding the Bus Poster Activity
Train-the-trainer
The Safe Routes to School team does not have the capacity to engage with all 55,000+ students in Portland's 100+ schools across five districts. This is why we designed our program in a creative way to be more sustainable. Through a train-the-trainer teaching model, we help educators become transportation safety experts for their school community. This helps expand our reach beyond what we would be able to do through direct education with students alone.
We provide initial training to teachers, then offer in-class support as teachers begin instructing students. Safe Routes to School staff are available to observe teachers in class, offer feedback, and help respond to questions.
Bring middle school multimodal safety education to your school!
If your school is interested in offering middle school multimodal transportation safety education, please reach out to us at saferoutes@portlandoregon.gov.