Teachers train to help kids bike and walk to school safely
Participants pose for a photo during a training held recently at Western Carolina University. Donated photo
This spring, 17 physical education teachers from Haywood, Jackson, Swain and Macon counties joined the Western Carolina University Project Discovery Talent Search staff for training in a curriculum that aims to help children be more healthy and active.
The Let’s Go N.C.! curriculum is a pedestrian and bicycle safety skills program for healthy, active children. Each school represented was given the curriculum and a jump drive with lesson plans, materials, activities and instructional videos to teach and encourage kids to develop safe pedestrian and bicycle habits, all while promoting healthy transportation choices and active lifestyles that can be carried into adulthood.
The program was developed by the N.C. State University Institute for Transpiration Research and Education for the Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation and the Safe Routes to School Program, and it is approved by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. Currently, about 16 pedestrians and three cyclists under the age of 15 are involved in fatal crashes each year in North Carolina, and hundreds more are injured.
