Presentation - Traffic Snake Game

THE TRAFFIC SNAKE GAME
@TheTrafficSnake
What is the Traffic Snake Game?
A fun and effective game
for primary schools
to promote walking and cycling or using public
transport
to school.
Promoting walking and cycling for children?
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• Important target group for
changing travel modes.
• Travel behaviour of parents
has a significant impact on
children and their choice of
travel modes.
• Most children and adolescents
do not formally learn how to
use alternative transport
modes, or learn about the
advantages of using
sustainable transport from
their parents or their school.
Mo
Promoting walking and cycling for children?
• Mobility and traffic education is
still too often only related to
learning traffic rules or road
safety training.
• Many children are driven by car
to schools that are often within
walking or cycling distances.
• Today’s children are
tomorrow’s adult transport
users and individual mobility
behaviour is created at a very
early age.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away
• Traffic Snake Game aims
to break the vicious circle.
• Started as a small
campaign with only a
handful of schools in
Flanders, Belgium.
• These days, the campaign
reaches yearly around
1,000 schools, 150,000
families and 200,000
children in the region of
Flanders alone.
Good results, much appreciation
• Easy: a relatively hassle free campaign to implement
at a school.
• Educational: fits curricula concerning Traffic
Education, Health Education, Sustainable
Development (ESD), …
• European: international , but embedded in a national,
regional or local context.
• Appealing: also a low political threshold, the theme of
sustainable mobility is easily picked up these days: the
combination of safety, health and children can be a
good opportunity for a more structured working basis.
The game in 6 steps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Measurement before and defining goals
Preparation
Collect sustainable travel dots
Reward progress
Play the deluxe version of the game
Collect data after the campaign
Campaign materials
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Traffic Snake banner
Green stickers per class
Dots per class
Manual for teachers
Information for parents
Measurement forms
Minikit (banner, dots, leaflet, gadgets)
STEP 1 - Measurement before and defining goals
• Set baseline
–
–
–
–
+/- three weeks before starting the game
By hands-up survey
Use the class measurement forms
Overall results will be calculated on a school form
• Define goal/SCHOOL , e.g.
– Baseline sustainable trips = 50%
– Target = 70%
• Calculate the number of dots per sticker/CLASS
– ‘Our class’ of 27 pupils = 19 sustainable trips/day
– Green sticker completed with 19 dots
• Set number of stickers to reach the goal
Hands-up survey before the campaign of how
children normally travel to school
• Idem
Define goal/SCHOOL
Calculate the number of dots per sticker/CLASS
Day 1 – 14 ST’s = 12 +2 => 1st full sticker
Day 2 – 16 ST’s = 10 + 6 => 2nd full sticker
Day 3 – 18 ST’s = 6 + 12 => 3th & 4th full sticker
…
Set number of stickers needed to reach the goal
STEP 2 - Preparation
• Hang the banner in an easy to reach place
• Divide the dots/stickers over the different classes
• Decide on reward for the pupils
• Divide the class forms
• Organise deluxe activities (step 5)
STEP 3 - Collect sustainable travel dots
Children receive a dot when they
Walk
Cycle (including kick bike, roller blade, skate board)
Take the bus
Travel by train (including tram, metro)
Car share
Teachers still fill in the class forms during the campaign period!
Measurement during
• Class teacher keeps count of
transport modes
• At the end of the two weeks
class measurement forms are
collected
• Overall results will be calculated
on www.trafficsnakegame.eu
(or on a school form)
Hands-up survey during the campaign period
Traffic Snake Game
• Each class adds dots on to green sticker
• Sticker is complete when the predefined target has
been reached
Example: Day 1 – 14 sustainable trips
• 12
• +2
Example: Day 2 – 16 sustainable trips
• 2+10
• +6
Traffic Snake Game
• Stickers are stuck on the banner
• Reward when getting to a milestone (large circular
drawings of stickers)
STEP 4 - Reward progress
• Reward pupils who travel to school
sustainably.
• Reaching each drawing on the
banner can lead to a small reward.
• Rewards can be individual, for a
class or for the whole school.
• Look for the bigger reward
(material or non-material) at the
end of the game, when the goal has
been achieved.
Reward examples
Extra playtime, apples, bicycle
bells, balloons, pens, playing
materials, games, books,
having lunch with the teacher,
watch television during lunch,
organise a playground party,
icecream after school,
breakfast at school, pimp your
bike/vest materials, etc.
STEP 5 - Play the Deluxe version of the game
• The TSG is a first step towards
more embedded working in the
field of sustainable mobility.
• Organise additional activities on
sustainable mobility
• Organise a celebration event at
the end of the week, especially
when the target has been
reached.
• Invite the press during the
campaign weeks
Deluxe examples
• Practical cycling lessons
• Puppet show or theatre about
mobility
• Pimp your bike
• Police teaching at school
• Miss & Mister fluo
• Exhibition of childrens drawings on
the theme
• Bicycle bell concert
• Bike wash & shoe polish sessions
• Exhibitions, etc.
STEP 6 - Collect data after the campaign
• Three weeks after the
campaign another Hands-up
survey is carried out.
• All data from the class forms
after the campaign are
collected on
www.traffisnakegame.eu (or in
the school form)
• All before, during and after
data are collected on
www.trafficsnakegame.eu (or
in the school form.
Hands-up survey after the campaign
Collect data after the campaign
Important!
Reward the pupils/classes still travelling
sustainably once in a while to keep them going.
Communicate the results. Show the impact to
parents/local stakeholders!
www.trafficsnakegame.eu
• Offers a core
instrument of
mobility
management for
primary schools.
• It is simple, but
simplicity is the
ultimate
sophistication.
Contact
National focal point <country>
Let’s play!
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authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European
Union. Neither the EASME nor the European Commission are
responsible for any use that may be made of the information
contained herein.