Please do the math.Save lives: New curriculum lets students analyze crash data

BLACKFOOT (IdahoEdNews.Org) — “When will we use this in real life?” Students want to know.

This saying ends with a new “Do Math.” In the “Save a Life” curriculum, high school students use their math skills to analyze maps, bar graphs, line graphs, and tables containing car accident data in Idaho and make safety recommendations. Reporter Jan Neish saw a math class in action at Blackfoot and called it “life-changing.”

This math lesson was created in partnership with the Idaho Department of Transportation (ITD) and a group of math educators across the state, and allows students to view maps and information about crashes across Idaho, including their own neighborhood, on ITD’s safety dashboard. Explore your data.

Data includes information such as accident location, reason for accident, monthly frequency, and counties with the least number of accidents. The state of Idaho processes more than 26,000 crash reports per year that are entered into its data system.

Students explore this tool and use math to create real-world safety recommendations. At an alternative independent high school in Blackfoot, students met with city leaders, including the mayor, city council members, police chief and sanitation superintendent, and made seven recommendations to reduce accidents in the city.

Although technically legal, they also helped convince RV owners that the location of their vehicles was causing car accidents in the area, Naish said. Police repeatedly asked the man to move the RV, but finally relented after students presented evidence.

The creators hope this will not only help the general public drive safely, but also the teens who use the curriculum.

Students at One Stone, a student-led private high school in Boise, described safety findings from data analysis.

“I was very surprised that distracted driving is the number one cause of car accidents. I will definitely remember this and give myself more space when driving!”

Another said, “We find that far more accidents are due to driver error than drunk or drug-related driving.” Driver’s Ed says you should always be on the lookout for impaired drivers. This surprised me because I’ve always been told that, but statistics show that accidents are actually more common due to simple driver error.”

The creators explained in a webinar last week that it began when officials at the Idaho Department of Safety (ITD) were brainstorming ways to reduce teen car accidents. In 2022, more than one in five car crashes in Idaho will involve a teenage driver. Teens were also 2.6 times more likely to be involved in an accident than all other drivers.

ITD developed the idea of ​​connecting crash data to math lessons and reached out to math stakeholders in Idaho to form a team of educators. Funded by ITD, they spent more than a year creating six lessons that he presented to hundreds of educators at the 2023 Idaho STEM Conference in Boise.

One of those curriculum creators was 5th grade teacher Josie Derrick, One Stone’s lead math innovator.

Derrick said, “I put my students in the driver’s seat and I want them to see how they can do math differently, how they can make it relevant. It is important to consider how we can give people choice and voice in the way they explore mathematics.

She joined the curriculum team to achieve these goals and was surprised by how receptive and engaged her students were to the collision data lessons. At the end of her semester, she reflected that “all of her students mentioned processing collision data as something that stood out to them,” she explained.

Derrick believes these lessons will stick with students more than traditional math lessons. “Because I hope this is something students will actually be interested in.” She also said she was satisfied that she was able to create materials that all teachers in Idaho could use.

The collaborators hope to continue using the collision data in math classes and potentially expand it to other grade levels. Derrick explained that while the current lessons are aimed at Algebra 1/Math 1, “with a little modification, these materials can be made suitable for other students.”

They also hope to expand to other subjects such as civics. Driver education courses are already using data as part of their safety instruction.

Educators can access all math lessons here.

Originally posted on February 19, 2024 at IdahoEdNews.org